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Are you ready to explore the transformative power of athlete sponsorship for your brand? Click here to learn more about how sponsorship can help brands grow and thrive in the exciting world of motorsports.
By Riccardo Tafà| Posted November 9, 2014 | In MotoGP, Motor Racing, Motorsports
Following the example of his brother, the younger Márquez saved his first international title at the last Grand Prix in front of his home crowd. After a thrilling race, he finished third, with was enough to beat Miller in the overall standing, even if the aussie has won the race.
Miller started very well, with his opponent Márquez in fourth position, but it wasn’t going to be an easy race for both of them. Basically, Miller had to open the gap between him and Márquez, with as many riders between them as possible. He tried to slow down the leading group, that included himself, Isaac Viñales, Niccolò Antonelli and Márquez, so that the group behind them closed up and hindered Márquez.
His plan worked out, with the following Danny Kent, Alex Rins and Efren Vazquez, closing up on Márquez. The fight got on and on, with plenty of overtaking maneuver and lead changes, but ultimately everything worked out for Álex Márquez.
Finally, Miller crossed the flag as winner, with Viñales and the new world champion behind him. They were followed by Danny Kent, who had tried to help out Miller, since his Husqvarna actually is a KTM, Márquez’ teammate Alex Rins, Efren Vazquez and Polesetter Niccolò Antonelli. All of them were involved in the fight up front, but couldn’t keep up or made a mistake earlier.
The Top Ten in the Moto3 class was completed by Miguel Oliveira, Brad Binder and Miller’s teammate Karel Hanika. Niklas Ajo, Jorge Navarro, Scott Deroue, Jules Danilo, Gabriel Rodrigo and Philipp Oettl crashed out of the race, but luckily every rider remained unhurt.
In the Moto2 class, the champion was already decided and starting from Pole Position. Esteve „Tito“ Rabat started usual good into the race, with a strong Tom Lüthi behind him. This formation stuck throughout the whole race, althrough Lüthi attacked the spaniard several times, but couldn’t hold the line and therefor had to give the lead back to Rabat.
The two had an immense lead over the following riders, naming Franco Morbidelli, Johann Zarco and Dominique Aegerter. This didn’t changed until the end, but on the finish straight, Rabat’s bike ran out of fuel and slowed down. This left the win to a completely surprised Lüthi, who couldn’t really believe what just happened.
But since Rabat has his world title already secure, it wasn’t too much of a disappointment for him. Behind the two leaders, frenchman Johann Zarco crossed the finish line as third, since Franco Morbidelli had crashed earlier in the race.
By that point, he leaded a pretty lonesome race, with Luis Salom following him as fourth.
Aegerter, who had been fifth at the beginning and fourth after Morbidelli’s drop-out, fell back to sixth position, where he ended the race behind a constant Xavier Simeon in fifth place. All of them had a more or less big space between each other, so real fights weren’t to be seen.
The Top Ten was completed by brit Sam Lowes, german Marcel Schrötter and aussie Anthony West. Next to Franco Morbidelli, also Axel Pons, Mattia Pasini, Lucas Mahias, Julian Simon and Sandro Cortese couldn’t end the race with seeing the checkered flag. After an incident, that both left unhurt, Maverick Viñales and Mika Kallio weren’t able to rejoin the race, which left the second place in the championship to the finn Kallio.
Are you ready to explore the transformative power of athlete sponsorship for your brand? Click here to learn more about how sponsorship can help brands grow and thrive in the exciting world of motorsports.
Managing Director for RTR Sports, Riccardo graduated in law at the University of Bologna. He began his career in London in PR, then started working in two and four-wheelers. A brief move to Monaco followed before returning to Italy. There he founded RTR, first a consulting firm and then a sports marketing company which, eventually, he moved back to London.
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Read MoreIn an era where it is possible to get anywhere with a click, there is a strong temptation to approach teams and properties directly for sponsorship projects.
By doing so, we are convinced that we are shortening the value chain, saving time and money. However, these DYI methods are anything but risk-free and what initially appears to be a competitive advantage soon turns into a problem that is difficult to resolve. That’s why there are agencies. And this is why you should rely on us for your sponsorships.
When first approaching a motorsport sponsorship project, it is difficult to know immediately which stakeholders are correct, what the decision flow is, and what the right timelines are for each process. Motorsport is a very specialized field of action, and fitting effectively into its paths can take a lot of time and therefore money. We, on the other hand, know referents and spheres of action and know who to talk to, when and how. So you are also more effective.
Motorsport is an immense passion, and for our heart colors we would be willing to do anything. But business is a different business, and it is important to make the best possible strategic decisions based on independent research, statistics and reliable data. A motorsport sponsorship agency like RTR has an objective, 360-degree picture of the scenario and can tell you what is really best for you: which racing series, which athlete, which team. This is because we possess a great deal of data and information on ratings, segmentation and attitudes. Because the numbers don’t lie. Never.
Activations are the real heart of motorsport sponsorship. Without them, there remains only a blank sticker on a motorcycle, car or uniform and no contact with the public, no emotional connection, no impact on the bottom line. Then how do you do it? It certainly won’t be the teams or the athletes who will help you leverage sponsorship and enjoy the many marketing rights you have paid for. To bring out the best in a motorsport marketing project, you need an agency that knows how to use sponsorship to engage the fanbase online, to reach out to Shopping Centers, to organize hospitality, to develop B2B and B2C opportunities, and to get “your” athletes in front of millions of potential consumers.
Would you ever go to the dealer who sold you the car and ask if the competitor’s car is better? No, of course. So, how do you expect to get firm measurements of the effectiveness of your sponsorship if you do not rely on someone super partes? At RTR, we have always worked with independent third-party agencies that allow us to know the return on any exposure of your brand on TV and in the media. In addition, we believe in calculating ROI as the ultimate measure of your success-so we can tell you for every penny you spend how much you are making.
We have been involved in motorsport sponsorship and sports marketing for more than 15 years. We are consultants in the sense that our goal is to maximize your investment, but we are also an agency that manages the project from start to finish. We have been doing this since 1995 with passion and professionalism, following three principles that have become cornerstones of our business: independence, verticality and transparency.
I would like to highlight the fact that one of the qualities of RTR is its great ability to approach the sponsorship scenario strategically, together with its passionate attitude, its amazing enthusiasm for solving problems, and its high level of professionalism.
Gianluca Degliesposti
Executive Director Server&Storage EMEA
Eurosport is truly delighted with its business relationship with Riccardo Tafà, who has become extremely popular, thanks to his detailed knowledge of the sports marketing sector and his highly diligent attitude to work.
Francois Ribeiro
Commercial Director
Passion and Expertise are the features that I have found in RTR since the very beginning. Serious and reliable professionals but also very helpful, nice and open-mind people, willing to listen and compare different ideas. All the values in which RTR believes make this agency a partner, not just a supplier, a partner with whom we have had the opportunity to achieve significant commercial results in term of success and image.
Luca Pacitto
Head of Communication
We have been working with RTR Sports Marketing for over 10 years. The objectives and the programmes of collaboration continue to be renewed and to grow with mutual satisfaction. I believe RTR is a team of great professionals led by Riccardo Tafà, who I consider a manager of exceptional skills and with a great passion for his work.
Lucio Cecchinello
Team Principal
I have known and worked with Riccardo Tafà since 1995 when we collaborated for the first time on a project for the Williams Formula 1 team. Several clients followed. After leaving Williams to work for Gerhard Berger then owner of the Toro Rosso F1 Team, I turned again to Riccardo to seek his help in finding a tool supplier for the team and Riccardo duly obliged with an introduction to USAG, a partnership with Toro Rosso which endured for five years. I recently started a new role as Group Commercial Director for the renowned Andretti Autosport organisation and I find myself working with Riccardo once again on a number of interesting projects. Why has this relationship with Riccardo endured ? He’s smart, knows the commercial side of sport inside out and back to front and he’s honest and trustworthy. Riccardo Tafà is a “doer” not a “talker”: in over 20 years I have never had a dispute either with him or with a company that he has introduced and each partnership introduced by Riccardo has delivered quantifiable ROI to rights holder and sponsor alike. I can think of no better testimonial of Riccardo’s diligence, knowledge, contact base and hard work than that.
Jim Wright
Group Commercial Director
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