Twin Ring Motegi, Japan - Honda rider Marc Marquez secured his third MotoGP championship in four years on Sunday by winning the Japanese Grand Prix at his team’s home circuit after his nearest rivals Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo both crashed out.
Earlier, newly-crowned 2016 Moto3 world champion Brad Binder lost out on a sixth win of the season by 0.017s after a dramatic final-lap showdown with Enea Bastianini.
MOTOGP
Marquez had only an outside chance to seal the title but his win at Motegi gave him an unassailable 77-point lead over Rossi, who started from pole but slid into the gravel early. Already the youngest rider to win a MotoGP race and the title in his maiden season in 2013, Marquez's triumph in Japan made him the youngest to seal three premier-class championships.
With seven times premier-class champion Rossi quickly out of contention, Lorenzo needed to finish fourth or better to keep his title defence alive, after taking a huge tumble in practice on Saturday. He returned to the track to qualify third on but battled to keep in touch with Marquez in the race. In the closing stages Lorenzo came under pressure from a hard-charging Dovizioso and his race ended in the gravel when he lost the front end with five laps to go.
Rossi got a slow start off his 64th MotoGP pole position, and it was championship leader Marquez who led the charge into Turn 1, before defending champion Jorge Lorenzo on the second factory Yamaha took the lead in Turn 2. Suzuki lead rider Aleix Espargaro briefly relegated Rossi to fourth, but the Doctor was soon back in the chase, duelling with Marquez for second.
A crash for Ducati privateer Eugene Laverty (his first of the year) took him out of the race after less than three laps, as the top three – Lorenzo, Marquez and Rossi – held station at the front. Then Rossi lost the front of his Yamaha at Turn 9 on lap seven, leaving Lorenzo as the last man standing between Marquez and the crown – and Marquez was leading.
Maverick Vinales on the second Suzuki broke away from an early fight with Honda privateer Cal Crutchlow to get in on the chase for podium spots, as his team-mate Espargaro falling back into his clutches while Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso began to hunt down Lorenzo. ‘DesmoDovi’ was closing in the Yamaha when an uncharacteristic error from Lorenzo saw him crash out, suffering a painful trip through the kitty litter after a big highside in practice that left him battered and bruised for race day.
That handed the race – and the title – to Marquez, as he cruised home to win by three seconds from Dovizioso, Vinales and Espargaro. Crutchlow was fifth – once again the top privateer - 15s in arrears, with Espargaro’s brother Pol the top Yamaha finisher for Tech 3 in sixth, ahead of Aprilia’s Alvaro Bautista, and privateer Ducati team-mates Danilo Petrucci and Scott Redding (just three tenths apart at the line) with Stefan Bradl rounding out the top 10.
MOTO2
Thomas Luthi took an impressive lights-to-flag in a race where the Kalex chassis were less dominant than usual, with Speed Up machines finishing sixth, eighth and 10th. The former 125 world champion got the hole shot off the line from the middle of the front row and unleashed an ominous race pace, just as he did in 2014.
Reigning champion Johann Zarco took a hard-fought second, while Franco Morbidelli converted his front-row start into third on race day after an incredible duel with home-town hero Takaaki Nakagami.
The drama began early as title contender Alex Rins crashed on lap one, trying to make up places after started from 22nd. Rins had had narrowed the on title leader Zarco to just one point, but crashed on Friday, leaving him riding through the pain barrier once again.
Before long another title contender took a tumble, as Sam Lowes lost the front end and slid into the gravel. 40 points adrift before the Japanese GP, Lowe’s title hopes took a serious dent as he slipped down to fourth in the standings with another DNF, after his stunning win in Aragon. Second in Aragon, Alex Marquez was another crasher at the same corner six laps later.
By then Luthi was well away at the front, with Morbidelli on his tail until Estrella Galicia rider began to suffer grip isssues, falling back into the clutches of Nakagami and Zarco, until the local rider ran wide, letting Zarco past to begin chasing down the leaders, putting in a superb late charge that cut Luthi’s advantage to less than half a second by the flag in a nail-biting finale.
But the last-lap battle wasn’t over yet as Morbidelli and Nakagami fought it out for the final podium spot. Nakagami tried several times to get past but Morbidelli held him off to take third by less than a quarter of a second.
Sandro Cortese put in a solid ride to fifth in his 200th Grand Prix with Simone Corsi flying the Speed Up flag in sixth, ahead of Mattia Pasini, Julian Simon (Speed Up) Marcel Schrotter and Xavier Simeon (Speed Up).
MOTO3
Enea Bastianini (Honda) took and incredible photo-finish win with a last-lap move on the new world champion that saw them cross the line almost side by side – and moved back up to second in the standings at the expense of Jorge Navarro (Honda), who clipped Joan Mir’s KTM in the first-corner melee and crashed out, skittling Peugeot rider John McPhee and KTM privateer Gabriel Rodrigo in the process.
Horoki Ono (Honda) took his first career podium and Japan’s first rostrum finish at Motegi since Hiroshi Aoyama in 2009 with a controlled ride to third as he fought off Andrea Migno (Honda) and Nicolo Bulega (KTM) - but was then disqualified for being under the minimum weight for bike and rider, handing third place to Bulega as an unexpected 17th birthday gift.
Despite an unplanned wheelie of the line Migno led the field into the first turn but when the dust settled normal service had been resumed with Binder leading a six-bike train from Bastianini, Migno, Mahindra’s Francesco Bagnaia (who’d made up nine places on lap one), Bulega and home hero Ono.
As the laps began to count down, however, Bagnaia began to lose traction and fell back slightly into the second group, led by Philipp Oettl (KTM) who had moved up from mid-pack.
Binder had a clear lead until Bastianini pulled the pin with only a handful of laps to go, pulling away from the pack to leave Ono and Migno squabbling over third, and putting intense pressure on the South African as they entered the final lap.
There was more drama on the last lap as Migno tride to pass Ono for third, only to clip the back of the Honda and get spat off in a big highside. Buzzing with adrenalin, he picked the KTM up and came home 25th.
But just ahead of them, made a move on Binder in Turn 11, just keeping the Honda on the track through the tunnel and holding off Binder by less than the width of a tyre in the drag to the line to take the win.
Ono came home third, ahead of Bulega, Oettl, Fabio di Giannantononio (Honda),. Bagnaia, Livio Loi, Fabio Quartararo, Mir and Niccolo Antonelli (Honda), with Sky-Racing VR46 KTM rider Lorenzo Dalla Porta 11th – which became a top 10 finish when Ono was disqualified after the weigh-in.