Marc Marquez has signalled his arrival as the wonder boy of motorcycle racing by claiming the MotoGP Championship in an electric decider at Valencia.
At 20 years of age Marquez has become the youngest rider in 65 years to claim the pinnacle of motorcycle grand prix racing and the first rookie to claim the crown since Kenny Roberts in 1978.
In front of a sellout crowd Marquez finished third, needing to finish fourth or better to ensure the title.
The Honda man remained cool against the daring cat and mouse tactics in the first third of the race with Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo winning from Dani Pedrosa.
Lorenzo did not surrender his MotoGP crown easily after rocketing to the lead off the start from Pedrosa with Marquez settling into third after a brief fight with eventual fourth-placed Valentino Rossi.
Lorenzo and Pedrosa traded the lead more than half a dozen times in a bitter fight as the former rider’s tactics emerged of trying to slow the pace and pack the field up behind him to increase the chances of Marquez coming under fire.
With 10 of the 30 laps in the books, Pedrosa ran wide into turn two with Lorenzo blasting his way through to the lead as he brushed the Honda rider who fell back to fifth.
Officials immediately issued a message that the move would be investigated by Race Direction after the race.
It left a straight dogfight between Lorenzo and Marquez as the two Championship combatants continued their daring dice at the front.
The season-ending race remained on a knife-edge until Lorenzo defied his pitboard instruction to slow down and bunch the field up. He duly proceeded to spread-eagle the chasers thus diffusing his title claims but ensuring victory.
With five laps remaining Pedrosa was invited through by Marquez to take over second position.
Marquez wisely circulated safely knowing he had a big gap to the good of Rossi in fourth. He ended the year with 334 points, four more than Lorenzo.
Alvaro Bautista was fifth ahead of Stefan Bradl and Bradley Smith.
See below for full results
| 1 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha | 46:10.302s |
| 2 | Dani Pedrosa | Honda | +3.934 |
| 3 | Marc Marquez | Honda | +7.357 |
| 4 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | +10.579 |
| 5 | Alvaro Bautista | Gresini Honda | +14.965 |
| 6 | Stefan Bradl | LCR Honda | +24.399 |
| 7 | Bradley Smith | Tech 3 Yamaha | +29.043 |
| 8 | Nicky Hayden | Ducati | +39.893 |
| 9 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | +53.196 |
| 10 | Michele Pirro | Ducati | +1m02.983 |
| 11 | Aleix Espargaro | Aspar Aprilia | +1m04.197 |
| 12 | Hector Barbera | Avintia FTR-Kawasaki | +1m06.826 |
| 13 | Claudio Corti | Forward FTR-Kawasaki | +1m11.481 |
| 14 | Danilo Petrucci | Ioda-Suter-BMW | +1m13.643 |
| 15 | Colin Edwards | Forward FTR-Kawasaki | +1m24.249 |
| 16 | Hiroshi Aoyama | Avintia FTR-Kawasaki | +1m33.010 |
| 17 | Michael Laverty | PBM Aprilia | +1lap |
| 18 | Luca Scassa | Cardion Aprilia | +1 lap |
| 19 | Bryan Staring | Gresini FTR-Honda | +1 lap |
| 20 | Martin Bauer | Remus Suter-BMW | +1 lap |
| DNF | Andrea Iannone | Pramac Ducati | 26 laps |
| DNF | Randy de Puniet | Aspar Aprilia | 23 laps |
| DNF | Cal Crutchlow | Tech 3 Yamaha | 9 laps |
| DNF | Yonny Hernandez | Pramac Ducati | 8 laps |
| DNF | Lukas Pesek | Ioda-Suter-BMW | 3 laps |
| DNF | Damian Cudlin | PBM-Aprilia | 3 laps |
See below for final championship points
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