Marquez wins Japanese GP, claims 7th World Title at Honda's home turf

Marc Marquez won the hard-fought battle with Andrea Dovizioso at Motegi to win Japanese Grand Prix. With this win, Repsol Honda rider Marquez clinched his seventh World Title and fifth Premier Class Title equaling the record of Mike Dohan. The 25-year-old Spaniard is now only behind Valentino Rossi(7 titles) and Giacomo Agostini(8 titles) in the Premier Class.

🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆#Level7 #WorldChampion #WC18 #MM93 #JapaneseGP@MotoGP pic.twitter.com/oazpec1jYi

— Marc Márquez (@marcmarquez93) October 21, 2018

Andrea Dovizioso made a decent start from the pole position and led the race for most laps before Marquez made his move with four laps left. Dovizioso showed resilience and put up valiant efforts to put pressure on Marquez from the second place.

However, ultimately Dovizioso lost the front end of his Ducati bike while pushing to stay at the front and crashed with two laps to go in the race. He later finished in the eighteenth place. He had a bleak mathematical chance to clinch the title and it went away with the crash.

After Dovi's crash, instructions were soon out for Marquez to stay put and cautious. He completed his last lap at Twin Ring Motegi with ease and acknowledged the crowd that elated with his championship win.

LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow was fast from the start. After starting from the fourth spot, he soon made move on Jack Miller in the third place. He even went past Marquez in the second place. After Dovizioso's crash, he eventually finished in the second place. Factory Suzuki rider Alex Rins finished behind him to round the top three on the podium.

Factory Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi finished in the fourth place. He gradually receded in pace after making a decent start. He once again seemed to have problems with his bike but managed to obtain the best possible result out of it.

Alvaro Bautista finished 6.9s behind the leader Marc Marquez in the fifth place. He was followed by Monster Yamaha Tech-3 rider Johann Zarco in the sixth place, who had started from the second place on the grid.

Rossi's teammate Maverick Vinales finished 13s behind the leader in the seventh place. Dani Pedrosa could only better three spots from qualifying and finished in the eighth place.

Pramac rider Danilo Petrucci and Tech-3 rider Hafizh Syahrin finished in the ninth and the tenth place, rounding the top ten of the list.

Race Results

#JapaneseGP - Race Results4th - @ValeYellow46 7th - @maverickmack25 Yamaha extend their congratulations to @marcmarquez93 of the @HRC_MotoGP team on taking the 2018 MotoGP World Championship Title.#MovistarYamaha | #MotoGP pic.twitter.com/BDtyWDfV0x

— Yamaha MotoGP (@YamahaMotoGP) October 21, 2018