Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez has sealed the 2019
MotoGP championship title, after beating Petronas Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo
in a last lap battle in the Thailand Grand Prix. The Honda star needed to score
at least two points more than Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso in the Thailand GP to
secure the world title, his sixth premier-class title and eighth MotoGP title,
with four races left in the season. Marquez is now just one premier class title
away that of Valentino Rossi and two from Giacomo Agostini.
The Thailand GP started with Quartararo on pole
position, his fourth this season, while Marquez qualified third on the grid,
with Yamaha's Maverick Vinales in second place. Quartararo was quick off the
line and maintained his lead while Marquez was quick to jump to second passing
Vinales, but not before facing competition from the factory Yamaha rider on the
opening lap. The rider though managed to retain his position on Turn 3 and then
slip-streamed past Quartararo to take P1. However, a braking mistake soon after
saw the Petronas rider regain the lead, while the Honda rider only managed to
save himself from Vinales.
The top three riders ran close as the laps
progressed and Marquez was hot on Quartararo's tail. The top riders though soon
started to detach from the rest of the pack and Vinales was now three seconds
off by the lead pair as the race entered Lap 11. Quartararo had built up pace
by then and wasn't having Marquez have this one easy. The young rookie was over
seven tenths in the following laps, only for Marquez to catch up as the race
crossed Lap 13. It was a close battle between the riders as the Honda man-built
pressure on the satellite rider as the laps progressed over the next 10 laps.
Coming in fifth was Alex Runs of Suzuki after
battling it out with Dovizioso, while Petronas rider Franco Morbidelli showed
impressive pace finishing sixth as defeated Suzuki's Joan Mir and Yamaha's
Rossi for the position. The latter finished at P8 behind Mir, while Danilo
Petrucci finished ninth on the second factory Ducati with LCR Honda's Takasaki
Nakagami coming in tenth. Pramac Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia of Pramac
Ducati finished 11th, while teammate Jack Miller was forced to start the race
in the pitlane and recovered to 14th. LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow took P12,
followed by Pol Espargaro of KTM at P13, followed by Pramac Ducati's Jack
Miller at P24. Aprilia rider Andrea Iannone finished 15th taking the final
point in the Thailand GP.
KTM's Miguel Oliveira finished in 16th place
followed by Avintia Ducati's Tito Rabat. Honda's Jorge Lorenzo was placed 18th
with Avintia's Karel Abraham in 19th place ahead of Tech3's Hafizh Syahrin. The
Thailand GP had two retirements including Aleix Espargaro on the Aprilia and
Mika Kallio on the KTM.
