Honda Motor Sports Guide 2020 THE FINISH LINE IS NEVER THE END DAKAR RALLY 2020 CRF450 RALLY Conquers World’ s Most Grueling Rally Giving Honda First Dakar Motorcycle Class Win in 31 Years The 2020 edition of the Dakar Rally, considered the world’ s most grueling motorsports event, was held in Saudi Arabia over thirteen days, in twelve stages covering over 7,000 kilometers, more than three-quarters of which was desert. Team riders for Monster Energy Honda Team, Honda’ s factory team, rode their CRF450 RALLY bikes to six stage wins out of twelve, of which Ricky Brabec won two. From Stage 3 onwards, Brabec defended his race lead to take the overall victory. Brabec, on his fifth Dakar, became the first American rider to win the event, and gave Honda its first overall win in 31 years. Honda first competed in the third Paris-Dakar Rally in 1981. Its first victory came in 1986 on an NXR750, which was followed by three consecutive wins up to 1989. Honda left the Dakar the following year, and in 2013, decided to race once again in the Dakar Rally, then held in South America, with its new CRF450 RALLY factory bike. Despite finishing runner-up in 2015 and 2018, victory had eluded Honda until this year, the 8th attempt after returning to the Dakar in 2013. Honda’ s History in DAKAR RALLY Year Best result Rider Nationality Bike 1986 Win Cyril Neveu France NXR750 1987 Win Cyril Neveu France NXR750 1988 Win Edi Orioli Italy NXR750 1989 Win Gilles Lalay France NXR750 Honda did not compete in the Dakar from 1990 to 2012 2013 7th Helder Rodrigues Portugal CRF450 RALLY 2014 5th Helder Rodrigues Portugal CRF450 RALLY 2015 2nd Paulo Gonçalves Portugal CRF450 RALLY 2016 4th Kevin Benavides Argentina CRF450 RALLY 2017 5th Joan Barreda Spain CRF450 RALLY 2018 2nd Kevin Benavides Argentina CRF450 RALLY 2019 7th José Ignacio Cornejo Chile CRF450 RALLY 2020 Win Ricky Brabec U.S.A. CRF450 RALLY Why Honda Races “ If Honda does not race, there is no Honda ” - Soichiro Honda. In 1958, Honda’ s founder Soichiro Honda announced his desire to compete in motorcycle racing, and poured all of his energy into it. His legacy lives on, and is at the heart of everything Honda does. Racing is in Honda’ s DNA. THE RACING GENE IT'S IN OUR BLOOD What's Coming in 2020? In motorcycle racing, Honda aims to win the triple crown in MotoGP for the fourth consecutive year, and defend its titles in motocross and trial championships. Honda also rebooted its factory team in the Superbike World Championship. In automobile racing, Honda aims for the Formula 1 crown in its sixth year after returning to the championship, and also aims for the pinnacle with NSX GT3 Evo and CIVIC TCR racing cars. Trial GP MXGP Formula 1 EVERY CHALLENGE EWC WSBK SBK MADE US STRONGER IGTC WTCR SUPER GT MotoGP Super Formula Formula 1 Formula One World Championship Honda was power unit supplier for two Formula One teams in 2019, a first since returning to the competition in 2015. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing won three races on the season and Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda (now Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda) climbed the podium twice, so it was a year of very steady progress. Honda will partner again with both teams in 2020 and work for even more victories. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing #33 Max Verstappen Nationality : Netherlands Date of Birth : September 30,1997 #23 Alexander Albon Nationality : Thailand Date of Birth : March 23, 1996 Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda #10 Pierre Gasly Nationality : France Date of Birth : February 7, 1996 #26 Daniil Kvyat Nationality : Russia Date of Birth : April 26, 1994 Max Verstappen As the son of former Formula One driver Jos Verstappen, racing is in Max Verstappen’ s blood. His kart race debut was at age seven and immediately showed his talent, becoming Belgian Champion. He continued to win race after race, collecting a number of titles at European and World Championships. In 2014, at age 16, he moved up to single-seaters and in his debut year, he took 3rd in the FIA F3 Championship. Following year, in 2015, he joined Formula One from Scuderia ToroRosso. At the time, he was 17 years and 165 days old and made him the youngest ever Formula One driver. In rookie year, he ended the season at 12th place. In 2016, he transferred to Red Bull Racing from Spain Grand Prix, the fifth race of the season, and secured his first victory at his first race with his new team. At 18 years, 227 days, he became Formula One’ s youngest ever winner. Verstappen won another two races in 2018. In 2019, with Honda power units, he recorded his personal best, three victories and ended the season 3rd. This season, at age 23, he will aim to become the youngest ever series champion. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Alexander Albon Albon started kart racing when he was 8 years old and won numerous titles in Britain and Europe. He moved up to single-seaters in 2012, distinguishing himself by taking 3rd in the 2014 Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup series and 2nd in the 2016 GP3 Series. In 2018, he raced in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, known as the gateway to F1, mounting the victory stand eight times, including four at the very top, and winning the pole position three times. He was in contention for the title to the very last race and ended the season in 3rd place. Albon made his Formula One debut with Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda in 2019 and was transferred to Aston Martin Red Bull Racing as of the Belgian Grand Prix, the season’ s 13th race. He had a remarkable season taking as high as fourth place and won the Rookie of the Year. Pierre Gasly Gasly started kart racing at age 10 and debuted a single-seater in 2011 in the Formula 4 French Championship. He came was 3rd in the season and the next year, he stepped up to the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup, winning his first championship in his second year. In 2014, he was promoted to Formula Renault 3.5 and finished in 2nd. Following year, he began competing in the GP2 Series (now the FIA Formula 2 Championship) while also serving as a reserve driver for Red Bull Racing. In the 2016 GP2 Series, he took the title. In 2017, he moved his racing career to Japanese Super Formula, claiming two victories. He made his Formula One debut with Scuderia ToroRosso from Malaysian Grand Prix in 2017, appearing in three races. In 2019, he to climb to the podium for his first time, bringing home his 2nd place trophy at the Brazil Grand Prix. Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda Daniil Kvyat Kvyat was born in Russia and started kart racing at age 9. He already had his mind set up then on becoming a racer and moved with his family to Rome, Italy to take part in European karting championships. He made his single-seater debut in 2010, racing in the European and Pacific Formula BMW series and the New Zealand Championship. He moved up to Formula Renault 2.0 in 2011. Kvyat talent was seen in 2012, placing 2nd in the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup, and in 2013 he was promoted to the GP3 Series (now the FIA Formula 3 Championship) and immediately took the title. He earned a place in Formula One in 2014 with Scuderia ToroRosso. He left Formula One for a while, but made a comeback to Scuderia ToroRosso in 2019 where he’ d brought bck the team the 3rd place at German Grand Prix which was the team’ s second trip to the podium in their history, 11 years since their last one. MotoGP MotoGP World Championship Honda’ s racing activities began with the Isle of Man Declaration in 1954. Five years later, Honda raced at the Isle of Man TT race for the first time, and in 1961, began racing in the road racing world championship. Since winning the opening round the same year, Honda’ s victories over 60 years has amassed to a record-setting 795 wins. In 2020, Honda aims to take the triple crown and reach 800 wins in MotoGP. Repsol Honda Team #93 Marc Márquez Nationality : Spain Date of Birth : February 17, 1993 #73 Alex Márquez Nationality : Spain Date of Birth : April 23, 1996 LCR Honda IDEMITSU LCR Honda CASTROL #30 Takaaki Nakagami #35 Cal Crutchlow Nationality : Japan Nationality : U.K. Date of Birth : February 9,1992 Date of Birth : October 29, 1985 Marc Márquez At only 15 years old, Marc Marquez debuted in the road racing world championship 125cc class in 2008. He became champion in his third season, and moved up to Moto2 the following year. At eighteen years and 87 days old, Marquez won the French Grand Prix to become the youngest winner in the intermediate class. Although he missed the final round due to injury, Marquez had seven wins during the season, securing second place overall. Once recovered from his injury, Marquez won nine of the seventeen rounds in the 2012 Moto2 season to become champion. In 2013, Marquez joined Repsol Honda Team to race in the MotoGP class. Finishing 3rd on the podium in his debut race at Qatar, and winning the following round in the US, Marquez set another record, becoming the youngest race winner in the premier class. He charged on to win six of the eighteen rounds to become the youngest MotoGP champion.