By Lisa Lewis
Sunday's third place at Phillip Island was enough to launch Marc Marquez into the record books with years of hard work by the Spanish teenager, his team and mentor, former 125cc champion Emilio Alzamora, resulting in the 2012 Moto2 crown.
It was a world away from the penultimate round of Marquez's debut season in the class, where he was effectively forced to concede victory to Stefan Bradl due to injuries suffered when he fell on an unmarked section of wet track at Sepang, the subsequent double vision issue then putting his racing career in jeopardy.
“After the serious injury I suffered a year ago, which could have taken me away from racing forever, the most important thing is that I was able to get back riding,” said Marquez on Sunday.
Marquez's second championship title, after the 2010 125cc crown, opens up a succession of new accolades for the talented Spaniard.
At 19 years and 254 days he becomes the youngest to take the Moto2 title so far and the third youngest in the history of the intermediate class, behind future team-mate
Dani Pedrosa and newly crowned down
MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo.
The fifth Spanish rider to hold the intermediate title, he is the first to do so using a Suter chassis.
A new highest points tally for Moto2 of 299, which can still be added to at the final race in Valencia, was achieved from Marquez's impressive record of 13 podiums - including eight wins - pushing his total career GP wins to 25.
He laid out his intentions from the very start. After missing most of pre-season due to the vision problems, he won at the season-opener in Qatar.
The Losail race also set the tone for the season with Marquez involved in controversy after an aggressive move on Tom Luthi during the final lap provoked the generally mild-mannered Swiss rider to slap the Spaniard on the arm on the slow-down lap.
The next two races ignited his season long rivalry with Pons Kalex rider Pol Espargaro.
Espargaro won at home in Jerez, Marquez had been in front when the race was stopped by rain, but his compatriot had lead the previous lap, which the result was to be taken from, then in Estoril they swapped paint after battling the race distance with Marquez the victor.