Marc Marquez clinches 2019 MotoGP title with Thailand GP win - autosport.com

Honda rider Marc Marquez became MotoGP champion for the sixth time after defeating Fabio Quartararo in a scintillating battle for Thailand Grand Prix victory.

Marquez, who has sealed the 2019 crown with four races to spare, is now just two premier-class titles short of Giacomo Agostini and one short of Valentino Rossi. He is officially an eight-time world champion when his 2010 125cc and 2012 Moto2 title are considered.

The 26-year-old spent most of the Buriram race in Quartararo's wheeltracks before inflicting another last-lap defeat on the rookie, whose wait for a maiden MotoGP victory goes on.

Quartararo, who had been allowed extra RPM from his engine this weekend and qualified on pole for the fourth time for Petronas Yamaha, had maintained the lead off the line, while Marquez jumped Maverick Vinales immediately for second and saw off a challenge from the works Yamaha rider on the run down to Turn 3.

Marquez himself then slipstreamed past Quartararo on that straight on the second tour, only to get his braking wrong into Turn 3, running wide in the sweeping right-hander and only just keeping second place from Vinales.

The Honda man was back on Quartararo's rear tyre in no time, and soon the pair began to make a break for it - with only Vinales managing to keep up for a couple of laps before dropping to more than three seconds off the lead by the end of the 10th lap of the 26.

By then Quartararo had managed to put some distance between himself and Marquez, with the gap reaching nearly seven tenths of a second at one point, only for the championship leader to immediately start catching the rookie back up.

On lap 13, he was all over Quartararo once more, hounding him corner after corner as the race passed its halfway point.

He continued to put Quartararo under relentless pressure until lap 23, where he finally tried a move around the outside of Turn 3 but eventually conceded the corner to his rival.

Another look followed at the same corner the lap after, but this wasn't enough to unsettle Quartararo heading into the penultimate lap - on which the Frenchman yet again hit his marks and kept Marquez at bay.

But on the final lap Marquez overtook Quartararo using the slipstream even before the braking into Turn 3, and managed to get his Honda stopped just in time to exit the corner ahead.

Quartararo stayed with Marquez over the rest of the lap and launched it down the inside of the Honda man at the final corner, desperately trying to get his bike stopped and pull off a block pass, but running out just wide to allow Marquez a crucial cut-back move.

The pair were separated by 0.171s at the chequered flag, with Vinales completing the podium another second down.

Dovizioso finished fourth, 11s down on Marquez as he fought off the charging Suzuki of Alex Rins.

Quartararo's Petronas team-mate Franco Morbidelli made it three Yamahas in the top six, while Suzuki's Joan Mir defeated Yamaha's Valentino Rossi in a close scrap for eighth place.

Danilo Petrucci settled for ninth in the second works Ducati, and Takaaki Nakagami completed the top 10 on the year-old LCR Honda.

Pramac Ducati rider Jack Miller was forced to surrender his sixth place on the grid and pull into the pitlane at the start of the warm-up lap, but recovered to 14th after starting from the pits.

Marquez's Honda team-mate Jorge Lorenzo was a bruising 18th as he was successful at fighting off Karel Abraham (Avintia Ducati) and Hafizh Syahrin (Tech3 KTM) but finished 54s down on the race winner.

KTM's Johann Zarco replacement Mika Kallio was the only rider to crash out, hitting the deck at Turn 8 on the fourth lap while running 16th.

Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro was the only other retirement, the Spaniard seeming disconsolate as he pulled into the pitlane with an unspecified issue.

Race result

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Laps	Gap
1	Marc Marquez	Honda	Honda	26	39m36.223s
2	Fabio Quartararo	Petronas Yamaha	Yamaha	26	0.171s
3	Maverick Vinales	Yamaha	Yamaha	26	1.380s
4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	Ducati	26	11.218s
5	Alex Rins	Suzuki	Suzuki	26	11.449s
6	Franco Morbidelli	Petronas Yamaha	Yamaha	26	14.466s
7	Joan Mir	Suzuki	Suzuki	26	18.729s
8	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	Yamaha	26	19.162s
9	Danilo Petrucci	Ducati	Ducati	26	23.425s
10	Takaaki Nakagami	LCR Honda	Honda	26	29.423s
11	Francesco Bagnaia	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	26	30.103s
12	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	Honda	26	33.216s
13	Pol Espargaro	KTM	KTM	26	35.667s
14	Jack Miller	Pramac Ducati	Ducati	26	39.736s
15	Andrea Iannone	Aprilia	Aprilia	26	40.038s
16	Miguel Oliveira	Tech3 KTM	KTM	26	40.136s
17	Tito Rabat	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	26	44.589s
18	Jorge Lorenzo	Honda	Honda	26	54.723s
19	Karel Abraham	Avintia Ducati	Ducati	26	56.012s
20	Hafizh Syahrin	Tech3 KTM	KTM	26	1m01.431s
-	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	Aprilia	17	Retirement
-	Mika Kallio	KTM	KTM	3	Retirement

Riders' standings

Pos	Rider	Points
1	Marc Marquez	325
2	Andrea Dovizioso	215
3	Alex Rins	167
4	Maverick Vinales	163
5	Danilo Petrucci	162
6	Valentino Rossi	145
7	Fabio Quartararo	143
8	Jack Miller	119
9	Cal Crutchlow	102
10	Franco Morbidelli	90
11	Pol Espargaro	80
12	Takaaki Nakagami	74
13	Joan Mir	58
14	Aleix Espargaro	46
15	Francesco Bagnaia	34
16	Andrea Iannone	33
17	Miguel Oliveira	29
18	Johann Zarco	27
19	Jorge Lorenzo	23
20	Tito Rabat	18
21	Stefan Bradl	16
22	Michele Pirro	9
23	Sylvain Guintoli	7
24	Hafizh Syahrin	7
25	Karel Abraham	5
26	Bradley Smith	0
27	Mika Kallio	0

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https://www.autosport.com/motogp/news/146428/marquez-seals-2019-motogp-title-with-lastgasp-win

2019-10-06 08:15:19Z
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