MARC MÁRQUEZ, SIX TIMES WORLD CHAMPION

Márquez saved a crash at Turn 1, just after overtaking Johann Zarco, and came back on track in fifth. He would eventually climb to third.

With this result, Marc Márquez became MotoGP World Champion once again today at Valencia in the final race of the season. Aged 24 years and 268 days, the Spaniard continues to break records in Grand Prix racing, and is now the youngest rider in history to achieve six titles. In addition, he enters the exclusive club of the ten riders with the most World Championships and becomes the Spanish rider to win the most premier class titles.

One of the closest MotoGP seasons in recent years went the Repsol Honda Team rider’s way thanks to his immense determination. After a start to the campaign in which he was as low as fourth in the standings after six races, Márquez put together a run of ten podiums from a possible twelve, leading the series twice and sealing the title at the last round of the year.

Márquez confirmed World Championship number six at the same circuit where he was crowned MotoGP king for the first time in 2013, and where he also took the first of his titles in 125cc in 2010. This season the Repsol Honda rider has taken six victories, six further podiums and eight pole positions.

Marc Márquez: “I’m living a dream. ‘Six Titles’ are big words. The truth is that I’m incredibly happy because we worked so much this year, and today the race was incredibly tense and exciting—a bit ‘Marquez Style.’ I made a mistake, but I also made my best save of the year. From that moment on, I just tried to finish the race in a good position. I’m sorry that Andrea didn’t finish the race, as he deserved to do so. He had an incredible season and I would have liked to have him on the podium with me today. The key to the year has been our mentality. In our world it’s very important to remain positive and motivated during the difficult moments. Some things happened to us at the beginning of the season but when we found the way to sort things out, everything went better. Congratulations to Honda and the entire team for the Triple Crown. It’s an amazing achievement. Winning the Title at the last race of the season in front of our fans is one of the best things possible, really special. Now I want to enjoy this with my entire team and my family, and after that we’ll start to work for next year.”