Spain’s Marc Marquez was crowned the 2019 MotoGP World Champion at the weekend in the only way he knows how: with a thrilling race win delivered at the final corner.
A full house at the Buriram Circuit in Thailand were treated to an edge of their seats MotoGP race as they witnessed Marquez crowned World Champion for an eighth time (his sixth MotoGP world title and 8th world title in total), on this occasion with four races to spare.
From the front of the grid at this 15th round of 19 in the series, Honda’s Marquez charged forward and immediately began to chase pole setter Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha).
With his only title rival, Italian Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati), a distant fourth Marquez was able to focus solely on the race win.
After trading fastest laps, the pair settled into their rhythm and Marquez waited for his moment to attack the 20-year-old rookie Frenchman.
The final laps were explosive as the defending MotoGP World Champion launched an all out assault on Quartararo, moving ahead as the last lap began.
But it would go down to the final corner, Marquez expertly defending from Quartararo in the last corner to take the 2019 MotoGP World Championship in style.
With 325 points, nine wins, 14 podiums, nine poles and 10 fastest laps – Marc Marquez becomes the MotoGP World Champion alongside the Repsol Honda Team for the sixth time and takes the eighth World Championship of his career.
The next race in the series is in Japan.
“I’m very happy. I’m so happy,” said Marquez afterwards.
“When you have an advantage like I had, you realise you are so close to the championship but you need to find something to keep you motivated.
“Today it was winning the race and it’s what I did. Fabio was so fast during the race but I never gave up, even during the middle of the race where it looked like he was escaping. It was a beautiful way to win the championship – even if I wasn’t thinking about it on the last lap!
“Arriving in parc ferme with the whole Repsol Honda Team there was fantastic; it’s a dream to do it with the whole fan club and the nice celebration. Every year is special, it’s not easy to keep everything perfect each year to fight for the title and I had a very hard winter with the injury but myself, the team and HRC managed it well. Now we’ll enjoy this feeling a little bit.”
Photo courtesy Repsol Honda
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RESULTS & STANDINGS after round 15 of 19:
| Thailand MotoGP – Race Results | ||||
| Pos | Rider | Nat | Team | Time/Diff |
| 1 | Marc Marquez | SPA | Repsol Honda (RC213V) | 39m 36.223s |
| 2 | Fabio Quartararo | FRA | Petronas Yamaha (YZR-M1)* | +0.171s |
| 3 | Maverick Viñales | SPA | Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) | +1.380s |
| 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | ITA | Ducati Team (GP19) | +11.218s |
| 5 | Alex Rins | SPA | Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) | +11.449s |
| 6 | Franco Morbidelli | ITA | Petronas Yamaha (YZR-M1) | +14.466s |
| 7 | Joan Mir | SPA | Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR)* | +18.729s |
| 8 | Valentino Rossi | ITA | Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) | +19.162s |
| 9 | Danilo Petrucci | ITA | Ducati Team (GP19) | +23.425s |
| 10 | Takaaki Nakagami | JPN | LCR Honda (RC213V) | +29.423s |
| 11 | Francesco Bagnaia | ITA | Pramac Ducati (GP18)* | +30.103s |
| 12 | Cal Crutchlow | GBR | LCR Honda (RC213V) | +33.216s |
| 13 | Pol Espargaro | SPA | Red Bull KTM Factory (RC16) | +35.667s |
| 14 | Jack Miller | AUS | Pramac Ducati (GP19) | +39.736s |
| 15 | Andrea Iannone | ITA | Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) | +40.038s |
| 16 | Miguel Oliveira | POR | Red Bull KTM Tech3 (RC16)* | +40.136s |
| 17 | Tito Rabat | SPA | Reale Avintia Ducati (GP18) | +44.589s |
| 18 | Jorge Lorenzo | SPA | Repsol Honda (RC213V) | +54.723s |
| 19 | Karel Abraham | CZE | Reale Avintia Ducati (GP18) | +56.012s |
| 20 | Hafizh Syahrin | MAL | Red Bull KTM Tech3 (RC16) | +61.431s |
| Aleix Espargaro | SPA | Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) | DNF | |
| Mika Kallio | FIN | Red Bull KTM Factory (RC16) | DNF | |
STANDINGS after 15 of 19 rounds:
| Buriram: MotoGP Championship standings | ||||||
| Pos | Rider | Nat | Team | Points | Diff. | |
| 1 | = | Marc Marquez | SPA | Repsol Honda (RC213V) | 325 | |
| 2 | = | Andrea Dovizioso | ITA | Ducati Team (GP19) | 215 | (-110) |
| 3 | = | Alex Rins | SPA | Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) | 167 | (-158) |
| 4 | ^1 | Maverick Viñales | SPA | Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) | 163 | (-162) |
| 5 | ˅1 | Danilo Petrucci | ITA | Ducati Team (GP19) | 162 | (-163) |
| 6 | = | Valentino Rossi | ITA | Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) | 145 | (-180) |
| 7 | ^1 | Fabio Quartararo | FRA | Petronas Yamaha (YZR-M1)* | 143 | (-182) |
| 8 | ˅1 | Jack Miller | AUS | Pramac Ducati (GP19) | 119 | (-206) |
| 9 | = | Cal Crutchlow | GBR | LCR Honda (RC213V) | 102 | (-223) |
| 10 | = | Franco Morbidelli | ITA | Petronas Yamaha (YZR-M1) | 90 | (-235) |
| 11 | = | Pol Espargaro | SPA | Red Bull KTM Factory (RC16) | 80 | (-245) |
| 12 | = | Takaaki Nakagami | JPN | LCR Honda (RC213V) | 74 | (-251) |
| 13 | = | Joan Mir | SPA | Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR)* | 58 | (-267) |
| 14 | = | Aleix Espargaro | SPA | Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) | 46 | (-279) |
| 15 | = | Francesco Bagnaia | ITA | Pramac Ducati (GP18)* | 34 | (-291) |
| 16 | = | Andrea Iannone | ITA | Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) | 33 | (-292) |
| 17 | = | Miguel Oliveira | POR | Red Bull KTM Tech3 (RC16)* | 29 | (-296) |
| 18 | = | Johann Zarco | FRA | Red Bull KTM Factory (RC16) | 27 | (-298) |
| 19 | = | Jorge Lorenzo | SPA | Repsol Honda (RC213V) | 23 | (-302) |
| 20 | ^1 | Tito Rabat | SPA | Reale Avintia Ducati (GP18) | 18 | (-307) |
| 21 | ˅1 | Stefan Bradl | GER | Repsol Honda (RC213V) | 16 | (-309) |
| 22 | = | Michele Pirro | ITA | Ducati Team (GP19) | 9 | (-316) |
| 23 | = | Sylvain Guintoli | FRA | Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) | 7 | (-318) |
| 24 | = | Hafizh Syahrin | MAL | Red Bull KTM Tech3 (RC16) | 7 | (-318) |
| 25 | = | Karel Abraham | CZE | Reale Avintia Ducati (GP18) | 5 | (-320) |