Magic Marquez Wins at Motegi Wins to Take Fifth MotoGP Crown

Magical Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team RC213V) made more history at Twin Ring Motegi today, winning his fifth MotoGP World Championship to achieve several new records in his illustrious motorcycle racing career.

First of all the 25-year-old Spaniard won his eighth Grand Prix victory of the 2018 season to win his fifth MotoGP crown in just six years. At the same time he also increased Honda’s lead in the Constructors World Championship – the company is chasing a record 24th constructors title and its seventh in the past eight years – and boosted the Repsol Honda Team’s advantage in the Teams World Championship.

On the Motegi podium today’s Japanese Grand Prix Constructors trophy was accepted by Honda Motor Co., Ltd President and CEO Takahiro Hachigo.

The latest success in the youngster’s stellar career also makes him the youngest rider to win five premier-class titles, taking the record from Valentino Rossi. He is now one of only eight riders to have won seven or more World Championships across all classes, putting him in the pantheon with John Surtees (seven), Phil Read (seven), Carlo Ubbiali (nine), Mike Hailwood (nine), Valentino Rossi (nine), Angel Nieto (13) and Giacomo Agostini (15). His various other records will be included in other Honda and Repsol Honda Team media information.

This weekend – Honda’s home Grand Prix – was always going to be a high-pressure event for maestro Marquez. He went into the race with a 77-point advantage over Andrea Dovizioso, with the Motegi, Phillip Island, Sepang and Valencia rounds of the 19-event season still remaining.

Marquez therefore knew full well that if he could beat Dovizioso then he would make sure of the title, an extra joy for Honda management and staff at their own event. On the other hand, however Marquez wanted to win at Motegi, he also knew he could not afford a crash, because that would hurt Honda’s and Repsol Honda’s chances in the important constructors and teams prizes.

And yesterday didn’t go perfectly. Marquez crashed his number-one RC123V during FP4, which couldn’t be repaired in time for qualifying, so he had to ride his second RC213V in qualifying. The bike wasn’t perfectly set up for this unusual layout, so he did well to qualify on the second row of the grid, while Dovizioso took pole position.

Today’s race was a contest of pure strategy. Marquez started masterfully from the second row and was soon riding behind leader Dovizioso, while fellow HRC rider Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda CASTROL RC213V) was also riding superbly, quickly fighting his way into third place and chasing the leaders.

In the final stages Dovizioso upped the pace, but Marquez was able to go with him. Finally, with four laps remaining Marquez swept past his rival to take the lead for the first time. He was convinced he could win the race. And when Dovizioso slid off on the penultimate lap, victory and the world title were secured. Crutchlow finished second. Just ahead of third-placed Alex Rins to give the company a famous one-two result.

Marquez was overcome by joy after the race, climbing the six steps of a special podium and then playing a mock video game – the Marc Marquez Pro-Race Championship – which proclaimed he had made it to the seventh level. Today’s world title was his seventh across all classes; 125cc in 2010, Moto2 in 2012 and MotoGP in 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

This was another amazing day in an amazing career. Once Marquez and all his friends at Honda have finished celebrating this latest victory he will continue his Asian-Pacific adventure with next weekend’s Australian Grand Prix and the following weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

Inevitably, Crutchlow’s superb ride to second place was somewhat overshadowed by the noisy celebrations greeting Marquez’s success, but there is no doubt that this was a truly brilliant ride by the 32-year-old Briton, who continues to get stronger and stronger.

The close support of HRC and his LCR Honda team has allowed Crutchlow to blossom in both speed and confidence. At one stage of the race he was able to get past Marquez and try to go after Dovizioso, but Marquez soon resumed position. The main satisfaction for Crutchlow – three times a MotoGP winner – was that he was able to run the pace of the two fastest riders in MotoGP. And next week he races at Phillip Island, where he won the race in 2016.

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team RC213V), who was briefly in the fight for the podium at the last race, rode a strong race in the group behind the leaders. He finally crossed the finish line in eighth position, chasing home Maverick Vinales and Johann Zarco.

Honda’s top two MotoGP rookies both finished in the World Championship points. Franco Morbidelli (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS RC213V) recovered from a heavy fall in practice to complete the race less than a second outside the top ten. He spent much of the 24 laps with fellow rookie Hafizh Syahrin, crossing the line right behind the Malaysian. The pair are involved in a titanic battle for the Rookie of the Year prize, which Morbidelli leads by just four points.

Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda IDEMITSU RC213V) scored the final point in 15th position after a battle with multiple All-Japan Superbike champion Katsuyuki Nakasuga. The 26-year-old from Chiba took the flag five seconds behind his compatriot for his eighth points score of the year.

Former Moto2 winner Thomas Luthi (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS RC213V) had a challenging race, finishing in 20th place after qualifying 23rd quickest.

The MotoGP paddock now packs up and heads to Australia for next weekend’s Grand Prix at Phillip Island. The final two events of 2018 take place at Sepang, Malaysia, and Valencia, Spain.

Marc Marquez

“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

“First of all it’s great to be on the podium here in Japan, because my team and Honda have done a great job here and they’ve done a great job all year. For me to finish second, for Marc to win the race and also the championship at Honda’s home race is great! My congratulations to Marc because he had ridden an incredible race. It was a bit of a strange race today. I felt good and I passed Marc, then when I was looking to pass Dovizioso, Marc passed me back. Then I wanted to keep a half-second gap between me and him because I knew he was fighting for the title! The funny thing is that Dovizioso yoyos the pace – he does one or two fast laps, then a few slow laps, which allowed the other guys to catch up. Most of all, I want to thank my team and Honda.”

Dani Pedrosa

“The race today was very disappointing, as I wasn't able to reach my expected performance. I didn't have the perfect feeling on the bike, and I struggled a lot. It’s a shame, because this is a track and a place that I like very much. Anyway, that’s the situation, and we need to try and manage as well as possible. I would like to congratulate Marc, as what he has done is amazing. He has been strong everywhere this season, and he was able to make only few mistakes, always gaining points. He’s a rider that evolves continuously. I think the team did a great job as well.”

Franco Morbidelli

“We struggled for all the weekend at this track and unfortunately yesterday I smashed the bike in qualifying but finally in the race I was fast and could maintain good pace and arrive close to the top ten. I am very happy because this was a difficult track for us with lots of acceleration.”

Takaaki Nakagami

“The start wasn’t too bad, but into turn one, turn two and turn three there were so many riders around us that I didn’t have any space inside and there was an impact on my handlebars that made me go out of the track at turn four. I was lucky I didn’t crash, but I lost a lot of positions, from 12th to 23rd I think. That was tough because it’s always difficult to move back up. The race pace was what we expected, 46 high to 47 low, but everybody had the same sort of lap time and it was difficult to overtake the guy in front. I didn’t expect this race today, I’m really disappointed with it. It was a big chance to finish in the top 10, but after the first lap it was over. I tried my best, but I’m sorry to all my fans in Japan.”

Thomas Luthi

“The problem was from the beginning of the race I could not build any feeling with the bike. My start was good, I had a good reaction time and got away fast and this was positive but then I struggled with rear grip and could not get temperature into the rear tire and this cost me a lot of time to the guys in front. In the middle of the race the rhythm was good but by then it was too late.”