Marquez stretches to Valencia MotoGP victory and seals Triple Crown

Full Valencia MotoGP race results

Marc Marquez has completed the perfect 2019 MotoGP campaign with victory at the Valencia Grand Prix to secure the teams’ world title for Repsol Honda and with it the Triple Crown.

Despite having little to fight for in the season finale, it didn’t stop Marquez’s domination of the 2019 world championship as he eased to victory after taking the lead from Fabio Quartararo eight laps in.

Marquez’s 12^th win of the year, coupled with a crash for Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci and Andrea Dovizioso in fourth place, allowed the eight-time world champion to overhaul the two point deficit in the teams’ standings to hand Repsol Honda the Triple Crown having already claimed the riders’ and constructors’ world crowns.

Quartararo’s bolt at the front, leading at the end of Lap 1 ahead of Jack Miller, ended up being short-lived as Marquez reeled in the Petronas Yamaha rider but the MotoGP rookie kept clear of the Australian rider to take second place and with it the Independent riders’ title.

In cold conditions at Circuit Ricardo Tormo the 2019 finale became a race of attrition with a scary moment on Lap 13 at Turn 6 when Petrucci, Johann Zarco and Iker Lecuona all suffered separate crashes which resulted in the French rider being hit and flipped by Lecuona’s Tech3 KTM bike. Incredibly, the LCR Honda stand-in rider walked away with only minor injuries.

At the front Dovizioso held off a race-long charge from Suzuki’s Alex Rins to take fourth place.

After a poor opening lap to the race, Maverick Vinales could only recover to sixth place for Monster Energy Yamaha but does hold on to third place in the riders’ final standings.

With Suzuki’s Joan Mir in seventh place, Valentino Rossi struggled in eighth place on the factory Yamaha but comfortably clear of leading Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro in ninth place after team-mate Andrea Iannone crashed out ahead of him on the final lap.

Pol Espargaro led home the Red Bull KTM charge in 10^th place ahead of Avintia Ducati’s Tito Rabat and Mika Kallio on the factory KTM.

Jorge Lorenzo completed the final race of his incredible career in 13^th place for Repsol Honda after announcing his retirement from racing earlier this weekend.

Karel Abraham (Avintia Ducati) and Hafizh Syahrin (Tech3 KTM) completed the points places, with both Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha) and Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) earlier fallers in the race.

Francesco Bagnaia missed the race for Pramac Ducati after suffering a nasty crash in FP3.