At the start of the weekend, Marc Marquez only needed 49 more points to claim his third MotoGP title in four seasons – but by the end of Sunday’s race he was already being crowned champion.
Starting from second on the grid, the Spaniard took the holeshot before Jorge Lorenzo stole the lead, which he held in the early laps. On lap four Marquez re-took the lead, and from that moment on no one could catch him.
With Rossi and Lorenzo both still in with a chance of winning the title, the Yamaha duo pushed hard to catch him, with the former binning his bike on lap 7, and the defending champion crashing out on lap 20.
That gave Dovizioso a well earned 2nd place, with Vinales getting the better of Aleix Espargaro to take 3rd in the closing stages, Cal Crutchlow once again the top satellite finisher in 5th.
A crowd of 52,216 watched from trackside and were bathed in warm, sunny weather as air temperatures reached 25°C, pushing track temperatures up to 37°C. They witnessed Marquez become the first Michelin motorcycle world champion since Nicky Hayden – also of the Repsol Honda Team – secured the title in 2006. Michelin will now head south as it travels to Phillip Island in Australia and round 16 of the championship, where the French tyre company will also be title sponsors for the event as the Michelin® Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix takes place on Sunday 23rd October.
After taking the title an ecstatic Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team said:
“This race was difficult, because when you are fighting for the championship it is hard to keep the concentration. I started the race and I was convinced my rhythm was good on the Michelin tyres and I was pushing hard early on. Then when I saw ‘Valentino out’ on my pit-board I decided to go for the victory. Then when I saw ‘Lorenzo out’ the feeling changed and I lost concentration a bit, but I then just couldn’t wait for the moment to cross the line and celebrate with the team. The tyres worked really well in the race, the front tyre temperature went up because conditions were different today and I was a little bit unsure how it would behave, but it worked really good. I want to say a big thanks to my Michelin technician Patrick, he has done a really good job all season and has helped me to understand the tyres we have used this year, so a big thanks to him because we are working really well together. It was quite difficult at the beginning of the season because I had ridden for a while on the same tyres and when you change it is hard to understand, but you must understand the potential and from Michelin it was really good. The rear tyre is amazing from Michelin and I am really happy to be the first champion with Michelin for many years and every time we go on-track we are learning many things and this year we did a great job.”
Nicolas Goubert – Deputy Director, Technical Director and Supervisor of the MotoGP Programme at Michelin rounded out the weekend:
“Firstly I want to give my congratulations to Marc Marquez and the Repsol Honda Team on winning the rider’s championship today. Marc has ridden very intelligently this season, he has shown a great maturity and adapted to the Michelin tyres in many different conditions very well. So well done to all involved on behalf of everyone at Michelin. This weekend has been another learning curve for us and we will take away a lot of important lessons that we know we can act upon and rectify for the future. We were quite surprised by the cold track and the time it took our tyres to heat up during the practice sessions in Motegi, but we spoke with all riders and teams to explain the situation and this is something we will work on for here in 2017. We now head to Australia, which everyone knows is a real inspection of the performance of the tyres. We are up to the challenge as we had a positive test there earlier in the year and have produced a tyre especially for the circuit. It will also be great to be involved in the event because it is the Michelin® Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix and it will be important for us to give a good account at our own GP!”
Next up comes a trip to the notoriously punishing Phillip Island, where tyres will once again be under the spotlight, with pride still at stake for the rest of the field as they continue to jostle for position.
