Marquez beats Quartararo for Thailand win to take MotoGP world title

Full Thailand MotoGP race results

Marc Marquez has defeated Fabio Quartararo in another final-lap battle to win the Thailand Grand Prix and duly clinch his eighth world title overall.

In a race which mirrored last month’s Misano round, the Repsol Honda rider stalked the MotoGP rookie for the entire Thai race before making his move on the last lap.

Using his RC213V’s superior acceleration and top speed, the Spaniard charged ahead of Quartararo on the long straight to the Turn 3 hairpin. But with the Petronas Yamaha rider’s strengths over the second half of the lap at the Chang International Circuit the race wasn’t over until a showdown at the final corner.

Quartararo gave it his all up the inside under braking at the last turn but couldn’t get his Yamaha stopped enough to block pass Marquez with the 2019 MotoGP world champion duly blasting ahead to take the chequered flag and with it the world title in style.

Marquez takes his sixth MotoGP world title, eighth overall, and becomes the fourth rider in history to claim four consecutive premier class titles after Valentino Rossi, Mick Doohan and Giacomo Agostini.

With Quartararo dejected having to settle for second place in a repeat of the Misano round, Maverick Vinales completed the podium for Monster Yamaha after struggling to replicate the lap record pace from the front two over the opening third of the race.

Andrea Dovizioso, the only rider who could stop Marquez from clinching the world title this weekend, could only manage fourth place for Ducati after keeping Suzuki’s Alex Rins at bay over the closing laps.

Petronas Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli saw off Joan Mir on the Suzuki for sixth place with Rossi fading badly as the last of the Yamaha riders in eighth place.

Danilo Petrucci continued to struggle for Ducati in ninth place but ahead of LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami and Pramac Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia.

Cal Crutchlow recovered from a poor start to take 12^th place for LCR Honda in front of Pol Espargararo for Red Bull KTM just two weeks on from wrist surgery.

After stalling on the grid and having to start from pit lane, Jack Miller fought back to 14^th place for Pramac Ducati as Andrea Iannone rounded out the points places.

With Miguel Oliveria in 16^th place for Tech3 KTM, Tito Rabat (Avintia Ducati), Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda) and Karel Abraham (Avintia Ducati) completed the finishers after Mika Kallio and Hafizh Syahrin both crashed while Aleix Espargaro retired to the pits for Aprilia.