Maverick Viñales (Yamaha) stormed away from the field to take the win earlier today at Sepang. Despite a heavy crash yesterday, Marc Marquez (Honda) came through the pack from an 11th place start to finish second. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) finished third. Of note, Johann Zarco, in only his second race aboard a Honda, rode well enough to lead both Cal Crutchlow (Honda) and Jorge Lorenzo (Honda) late in the race before an impact with Joan Mir (Suzuki) caused him to crash.
With his second place finish, Marquez broke the all-time points record for a single season, and also set the record for the most podiums (17) in one year.
Marquez has already clinched this year’s championship. The final race of the year will occur at Valencia in two weeks. Follow this link to full race results. For additional details and points, visit the official MotoGP site.
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Jorge Lorenzo is a great rider and a great racer. He’s fought back from severe injuries before, and is still riding injured. Neither my support nor your criticism will affect either his or Honda’s decisions as to his future in MotoGP. He proved he could win on the Ducati before it tried to kill him.
Honda needs a racer like Jorge to help develop a bike that is both fast and usable. I fully expect to see Lorenzo back at the pointy end of the group next year. There were some glimpses of progress at Sepang, and there is reason to believe that Honda will work on the ridability of the the bike of the 2020 season.
Congrats to Mav on the win, and to Marc for yet another top-two finish. Even with the Championships decided, we still have one more great race coming up soon.
If Lorenzo had stay at Ducati he would be in the same position he is in Honda right now, my guess for that “I can win” couple of races on Ducati was mental… was he saying… either I win or I retire; so under pressure he delivered.
Now he added injuries on top of the “I’m cannot win anymore” attitude and getting old doesn’t help.
I’ve never been a fan of JL but it saddens me this result.
On the other hand it makes me appreciate more VR performance at his age.
Maverick is pointing to God, but Marquez can’t see him because of who he is. Lorenzo needs to do what he can to get back on the Yamaha ASAP or retire. I think he could outrun Maverick.
Enjoying Zarco’s work on the Honda. Lorenzo needs to retire as he is washed up.
Vinales really was unbeatable today. Rossi didn’t look too bad either.Needed a few more pony’s in the engine as usual. Quatararo didn’t look like he did in practice and qualifying for some reason. I really expected him to win.
Marquez did well to finish 2nd after starting 11th and with that big high side in qualifying. The kid is tough.
Zarco embarrased Lorenzo again until he got punted by Mir.
if those Suzuki’s ever learn to qualify………….
Poor Miller & Crutchlow..glory one week, disaster the next.
One more to go, hate to see it end this season.