MotoGP:Marc Marquez crowned 2018 World Champion at Motegi

Roberto magni By Foto ReD Photograpic Agency - Marc Marquez took an incredible victory at Twin Ring Motegi today, becoming the 2018 MotoGP World Champion with three races to go, in front of Honda President and CEO Mr Takahiro Hachigo, who joined him on the podium.

After starting from the sixth spot on the grid, Marc was immediately able to recover four positions, taking over second place and engaging in race-long battle with title contender Andrea Dovizioso and fellow Honda rider Cal Crutchlow. With two laps remaining, the Italian rider crashed out of the race, just after Marc had passed him in preparation for a last-lap duel. With his eighth win of 2018 and the 69th in his career (across all classes), Marquez becomes the youngest rider of all time to reach the milestone of seven World Championships (125cc in 2010, Moto2 in 2012 and MotoGP in 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018); he does this at the age of 25 years and 246 days, taking the record from Mike Hailwood, who was 26 years and 140 days old when he won his seventh title, the 1966 350cc crown.

LCR Honda CASTROL rider Cal Crutchlow produced the goods at HRC´s home race on Sunday as he claimed second place at the Twin Ring Motegi. Having been consistently fast throughout the weekend, the Briton got the result his efforts deserved. Starting from the front of the second row, Crutchlow quickly latched on to Marquez and Ducati´s Andrea Dovizioso as the three riders pulled clear at the head of the race. The LCR man looked comfortable as he stayed with the title rivals and it was only in the closing stages that they moved away. But Dovizioso then crashed on the penultimate lap allowing Crutchlow to come through for second after holding off the late challenge of Suzuki´s Alex Rins.

From third row grid spots, Alex Rins were able to get good starts. Poi with ten laps to go, Meanwhile, Alex Rins took on the chance to fight for the podium, challenging Crutchlow for 3rd. With two laps to go, following a crash from Dovizioso, Alex was elevated to 3rd place and he crossed the line very close to 2nd. To celebrate Alex Rins´ third MotoGPâ„¢ podium of the season at Motegi in Japan aboard the GSX-RR this weekend, Suzuki has produced a special celebration Wallpaper as a gift to all Suzuki fans worldwide.

Marc Marquez Winner 2018 MotoGP World Champion “I feel really, really good. I would say it´s a dream came true, or better, that I´m living a dream. It´s something so special, here together with my team, all the Honda and HRC people, my family and my staff. It has been a great season, and ever since Aragon I´ve been tasting, imagining this title, because it was very close. Then I realized that this wasn´t my style, and I needed extra motivation, so I set the goal of trying to achieve it with my first match ball“”in Motegi, by winning the race. This circuit was a challenging one to manage that, but it seems like when I´m under pressure, I feel better on the bike! Today the race was as I expected. I was prepared to make a good start and immediately make some passes. I got to second place at the end of the first lap, and then was able to follow Andrea and stay with him. I thought I could try and attack before the last lap because I felt I had something extra to give. He was pushing very hard and made a mistake, and that´s a shame because he deserved to be here on the podium. That´s also something that I think Dani would deserve at least once this season. Anyway, when I crossed the finish line it was an explosion of joy. My people prepared this Level7 celebration, but I didn't know anything ahead of time. I never want to know, but I think it´s because I used to play that kind of game a lot. Now it´s time to celebrate this seventh title and enjoy these final three races.“

Cal Crutchlow ““ 2nd “Everyone saw it was a good battle today. We´re pleased with the result at Honda´s home race and the Team´s done a fantastic job. The problem we had was that Dovi (Andrea Dovizioso) kept slowing down the pace so it allowed the people behind to catch up, but I think we did a great job managing the situation“. “I was struggling a little bit on the left hand side with the rear grip so I was trying to save the tyre for the end of the race and keep (Alex) Rins at bay, that´s all I needed to do. Then Dovi crashed and I took second place so in the end I was very pleased. At the moment we´re riding very, very well, we´ve had some good results lately and now we head to Phillip Island in good spirits.“

Alex Rins ““ 3 nd “I´m feeling really happy and so are the team, especially as Japan is the home race for them. We did a great race; I was able to overtake riders at the start, and have good race pace. After Andrea crashed I assessed the situation and thought Crutchlow might be too far in front, but I decided to try and catch him. But it was difficult to pass him because he was braking really hard. But finally we got 3rd and we´re so pleased. I´m still learning, and for sure it´s fun to fight with the other riders, even if it´s very hard. We´ll try to end this season with more podiums!“

MotoGP 2018 Sunday, October 21st 2018 Race Round 16 Grand Prix of Japan
Race Classification
1 Marquez Marc 93 SPA 25 Repsol Honda Team Honda 42'36.438
2 Crutchlow Cal 35 GBR 20 LCR Honda Honda 1.573
3 Rins Alex 42 SPA 16 Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki 1.720
4 Rossi Valentino 46 ITA 13 Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 6.413
5 Bautista Alvaro 19 SPA 11 Angel Nieto Team Ducati 6.919
6 Zarco Johann 5 FRA 10 Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 8.024
7 Vinales Maverick 25 SPA 9 Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 13.330
8 Pedrosa Dani 26 SPA 8 Repsol Honda Team Honda 15.582
9 Petrucci Danilo 9 ITA 7 Alma Pramac Racing Ducati 20.584
10 Syahrin Hafizh 55 MAL 6 Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 24.985
11 Morbidelli Franco 21 ITA 5 EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 25.931
12 Smith Bradley 38 GBR 4 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 26.875

13 Espargaro Pol 44 SPA 3 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 27.069 14 Nakasuga Katsuyuki 15 JPN 2 Yamalube Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 32.550 15 Nakagami Takaaki 30 JPN 1 LCR Honda Honda 37.718 16 Simeon Xavier 10 BEL 0 Reale Avintia Racing Ducati 39.583 17 Torres Jordi 81 SPA 0 Reale Avintia Racing Ducati 39.839 18 Dovizioso Andrea 4 ITA 0 Ducati Team Ducati 42.698 19 Redding Scott 45 GBR 0 Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 49.943 20 Luthi Tom 12 SWI 0 EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 52.707 21 Guintoli Sylvain 50 FRA 0 Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki 1'01.848 22 Iannone Andrea 29 ITA 0 Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki 10 laps 23 Abraham Karel 17 CZE 0 Angel Nieto Team Ducati 12 laps 24 Miller Jack 43 AUS 0 Alma Pramac Racing Ducati 14 laps 25 Espargaro Aleix 41 SPA 0 Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 18 laps