Spanish oil and gas company Repsol has agreed a three-year extension to its long-running title sponsorship of the factory Honda team, the dominant force in motorcycling’s MotoGP championship.
Repsol has served as title sponsor of the team since 1995 and will now continue this association through 2017.
Half of the MotoGP world championship titles won in the past 20 years have gone to Repsol Honda thanks to Mick Doohan (between 1995 and 1998), Alex Criville (1999), Valentino Rossi (2002 and 2003), Nicky Hayden (2006), Casey Stoner (2011) and Marc Marquez (2013).
Marquez seems set to retain his title this season with the Spaniard having won all nine rounds of the campaign to date. Team mate and fellow Spaniard Dani Pedrosa sits second in the championship.
The partnership between Repsol and Japanese manufacturer Honda goes beyond a conventional sporting sponsorship arrangement through cooperation between the Honda laboratories in Saitama, Japan, and the Repsol Technology Centre in Mostoles, Spain.
Begona Elices, Repsol’s director general of communication and presidency, said: “We have two exceptional riders in Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa, who represent Repsol values perfectly. This bond with the highest level of competition is the best impulse to improve as a global company, to investigate and develop cutting edge fuels and lubricants.”