Pablo Nieto did not hide his emotion at seeing Marc Márquez pay tribute to his father Ángel after his victory at the Argentine Grand Prix, which allowed him to equal the Spanish legend.
By winning the Argentine Grand Prix, Marc Marquez has reached the symbolic milestone of 90 Grand Prix victories, all categories combined (sprint races are not included in the official statistics) and thus equaled Angel Nieto, a true legend of this sport with 13 world titles, died on August 3, 2017.
The team of issue #93 had thus planned a surprise of which he was not aware in order to pay tribute to Angel Nieto : a crown adorned with a scarf in the colors of the Argentine flag and on which was written "12 + 1 = 90 gracias Ángel", in a nod to the superstition which always made him say that he had 12 + 1 titles and not 13.
A tribute that did not fail to touch his son, Pablo Nieto, who works in the VR46 team as team manager. "As he always said, he was the father of motorcycling, and the fact that Marc equaled him, whether we liked it or not... My father always liked to be equaled or surpassed. He had motorcycling in him. I just want to thank him, simply thank him, because it's an honor that my father is remembered. It also moves me a little.", he told DAZN.
Pablo and Angel Nieto
"I thank Marc for remembering my father, and that's life! He keeps trying to beat him.", he added to MotoGP.com, while Marc Márquez estimated that the Nieto family "deserved" and to continue: "You know your father gave me a lot of advice."
In addition to the tribute paid to his father, Pablo Nieto saw its drivers Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Di Giannantonio finish on the podium and in fifth place respectively. Enough to make this day "special" and bode well for the rest of the season. "We took a risk on the grid by choosing to use the soft tire while the other Ducati riders had used the medium. It was a fantastic race!"
Main photo credit of the article: MotoGP.com
