MARQUEZ CELEBRATES 50TH CAREER WIN WITH SENSATIONAL FINAL LAP

The race began at a rapid pace, with Lorenzo, Iannone, Marc, Dani, Rossi and Crutchlow leading the way. Lorenzo pushed at the front trying to open a gap as the other riders jostled for position behind him. By lap seven, Marc had slotted in behind Lorenzo as the other riders continued to battle, constantly swapping position.

Despite constantly passing one another, Marc, Rossi and Iannone caught up with Lorenzo and on lap eighteen Marc took the lead briefly, but it only lasted three laps. Marc, Rossi and Iannone continued to fight and Marc dropped down to 4th with just two laps to go. However, he never gave up hope – passing Rossi on the penultimate lap into 3rd – and on the final lap making up two places whilst recording the fastest lap of the race and taking the victory by just 0.249 seconds over Lorenzo.

Marc’s win here is his 50th in his career and his first in the MotoGP class at Phillip Island – only victory at Motegi eludes him – from circuits on the current calendar.

FOURTH IN JAPAN UNDER THE RAIN

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa has taken a fantastic win – his first since Brno GP 2014 and his 50th of his career (8 x 125cc, 15 x 250cc, 27 x MotoGP) – at Honda’s home race in Japan. Reigning World Champion Marc Marquez, who is nursing an injured left hand, managed to come home 4th in the wet race.

With rain arriving this morning and delaying proceedings, the MotoGP warm up was delayed to 11h20am and the riders had a frantic twenty minutes to prepare the wet setup on their machines. As the race began, Dani made up some positions from 6th place to 4th and Marc dropped from 3rd to 6th by the end of the first lap. Marc passed Iannone on the second lap with Dani chasing down race leaders Lorenzo, Rossi and Dovizioso.

By lap eight Dani began to find a good rhythm and although four seconds behind Dovizioso, his lap times improved as the gap began to fall. Dani reached Dovizioso on lap eleven and after the Italian made a small error, Dani was able to pass him effortlessly and begin to hunt down Rossi who was four seconds ahead.

Dani reached Rossi by lap sixteen and passed him into second place. Then two laps later, Dani had made up the gap and passed Lorenzo into 1st and never looked back, controlling the final seven laps and winning by 8.5 seconds. Marc was able to pass Dovizioso on lap twenty one and took a comfortable 4th place.

Dani remains the most successful rider at Motegi with five wins (2011,12,15 in MotoGP; 2004 in 250cc; 2002 in 125cc). He now moves up two places in the rider standings to 5th on 154 points. Marc remains 3rd on 197 points with just three races remaining.

The MotoGP paddock now pack up in Japan and head immediately to Australia for round sixteen next weekend.