Redding heading for glory
History man Marquez bigs up his Fab rival DINA GLOSSES OVER MEDAL HAUL
MARC MARQUEZ beat rookie Fabio Quartararo over the line to take his eighth MotoGP world title in Thailand yesterday.
Then he tipped his young rival as a challenger for next year’s title.
The Repsol Honda rider stalked the Petronas Yamaha for the whole race at Chang International Circuit before making a last lap move into turn three to take the lead.
Marquez, 26, then fended off a late lunge from Quartararo, 20, to win by 0.171secs, rewriting the record books as the youngest rider to win eight world and six premier class titles.
“The plan all weekend was to try and win the race – it didn’t matter about the championship,” said the Spanish star.
“Fabio was really fast at one point in the race. He is certainly now going to be one of the main contenders for next year.
“He’s riding the Yamaha in a very good way. He uses all the track and finds a way to keep very high corner speed so he is someone to watch for sure.”
Quartararo had started the 24-lap race from pole ahead of the Monster Energy Yamaha of Maverick Vinales with Marquez third.
The Frenchman made a faultless start and launched himself into the lead as Marquez dived past fellow countryman Vinales to move up to second.
A lap later, the championelect tried to make a move on Quartararo as the pair crossed the line but ran wide into turn one and had to surrender the spot and tuck back into second.
From there, Marquez settled into second and the leading pair began to pull away from Vinales in third.
Quartararo looked to ease out a small gap from Marquez at around half distance but the defending champ upped his pace and was quickly back behind him, to put himself in the perfect place to mount his last-lap charge.
“It was really nice to ride the bike and just amazing when I crossed the line,” added Marquez, who is now champion for the fourth year in succession.
Vinales was third, around a second behind Quartararo while Brit Cal Crutchlow finished 12th. DINA ASHER-SMITH vowed success would not change her as she flew home with a fistful of medals – and plans to decorate her kitchen.
Rather than paint the town red after becoming the first Briton to win three medals at a single world championships, she has decided to paint her kitchen purple.
“I’ve been taking pictures of the coffee shop here in the hotel,” said the sprint sensation.
“I want to make the kitchen in my flat look like it, with the blue and the purple. I’m serious!”
Asher-Smith had been installed from ALEX SPINK in Doha
as the poster girl for next year’s Tokyo Olympics even before adding relay silver on Saturday night to her 200 metres gold and 100m silver.
And few will argue with that choice by world athletics boss Seb Coe given the way the 23-year-old backed up last year’s European golds with this triple medal-winning effort in Doha.
She is going to be in high demand in the nine months between now and flying to Japan.
But she pledged: “I will keep being me. If that means great things happen then they do. If it doesn’t, then hey-ho.
“I’ve always been about running fast. I want to keep having fun too and that means eye liner, lipstick, scrunchies, smiling and being clumsy.”
There was disappointment in both 4x400m relays. The women finished fourth but thought they had bronze when Jamaica were disqualified, only for the silver medallists to win an appeal.
The men failed to finish as Toby Harries fell trying to pass the baton.
Britain finished with five medals, their worst haul at a World Championships since 2005. SCOTT REDDING moved a step closer to his first Bennetts British Superbike title after doubling up at Donington Park yesterday.
Former MotoGP star Redding overcame a small mechanical problem in the second race to take two wins at his favourite track, giving him a 28-point lead ahead of the final round.
The Be Wiser Ducati rider beat Tommy Bridewell to the opening win by just over two seconds as his team-mate Josh Brookes finished third, before beating Brookes to the second win as Bridewell was third in two dominant races.
“Josh stepped it right up in that second race, he always does that, it’s one of his strategies so I always have to keep that in my pocket,” said a relieved Redding.
“We did have a mechanical problem – the gear shifter was not selecting gears properly and I saw he’d closed half a second with a few laps to go.
“In the end I was happy just to bring it home.”
With a triple-header at the final round at Brands Hatch in a fortnight with 75 points up for grabs, Redding could still lose out to Brookes while Bridewell also has an outside chance of the title despite being 65 points behind.