Marquez elbows out rival
MARC MARQUEZ won his fourth MotoGP world title in five years after the Spaniard’s only rival, Andrea Dovizioso, crashed out of a dramatic season-ending race in Valencia.
Marquez, 24, pulled off the save of the season after nearly falling, but his elbow power was enough to see him through to third place and a 298-261 points margin over Dovizioso.
He said: “This is an amazing feeling – I tried all of the way to be calm, tried to control the situation but then I say, it is time to push as my pace is better. I pushed too hard, lost the front, but it was Marquez style in the end and the left elbow gave me the world championship.”
The Repsol Honda rider looked set to crash late on as the front of his bike swerved out of line, but Marquez – at about 100mph – scraped the surface with his left elbow and knee, and wrestled it back. He ran through the gravel, rejoining the race in fifth.
Dovizioso, who had to win to have any chance of taking the crown for the first time, then tipped off two laps later, moments after his Ducati team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.
Dani Pedrosa snatched his second win of the season, 0.337secs ahead of Johann Zarco.
SPORT IN BRIEF
SEBASTIAN VETTEL won the Brazilian Grand Prix but four-time world champion Lewis Hamilton stole the show by producing the drive of the day from last to fourth.
Hamilton, who clinched the title in Mexico two weeks ago, started from the pitlane after changes to his car following a crash in qualifying but led the race before the halfway stage as others pitted.
The Briton was already up to ninth after 10 laps, with the safety car deployed after opening-lap collisions.
“It was fun. It was reminiscent of my karting days when I’d start at the back, particularly in my first year or two,” said Hamilton. “I messed up yesterday and put myself in the worst position.
“Waking up this morning, my goal was really kind of just to redeem myself. I was trying to get back to third but just ran out of tyres.
“But I enjoyed the race and I enjoyed the battle. That continues to show me, but also to everyone else, that I still have a lot of fire in my heart.
“I’m still young at heart and there’s still many, many more races to go. To get back to fourth, I have to be very grateful and be happy with that.”
Valtteri Bottas, who had lined up on pole for Mercedes, saw his hopes of overhauling Vettel for the runner-up position in the championship effectively disappear when he finished second. The Finn lost the lead at the start to the German, who had the race under control from the first corner.
Vettel is now 22 points clear of Bottas with only the Abu Dhabi seasonender remaining. It was his fifth win of the season, the 47th of his career, and Ferrari’s first since Hungary at the end of July.
Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen held off Hamilton to take third place for Ferrari, the 2007 world champion’s third podium finish in a row.
“I had a very good getaway but then I had a bit of wheel spin so I thought I’d missed my chance,” said Vettel of the key moment of the race.
“But I think Valtteri was struggling even more off the line, so I was able to squeeze down the inside and I think I surprised him a little bit.
“After that we were pushing for the remaining Not Classified: