Valencia MotoGP Race Results: Marc Marquez ends season in style

Marc Marquez has completed his superb sixth MotoGP title-winning season with yet another dominant victory in the Valencia MotoGP finale, his 11th of the year.

A commanding performance symptomatic of a devastatingly dominant season, Marquez recovered from a tardy start to claw his way back into contention before snatching the lead on lap seven and easing away.

It leaves him with 11 wins and eight second place finishes from 19 races, his only blemish being a DNF early in the season at COTA. His success also meant Repsol Honda overhauled Ducati Corse to wrap up the triple crown of riders, manufacturers’ and teams’ titles for the HRC outfit.

A perfect end to as much of a perfect season any rider could hope to achieve at this level, though Marquez got off the line from the front row slowly to run sixth initially, a double pass on Alex Rins and Andrea Dovizioso at the start of lap two had him quickly back to third.

From here he dismissed Jack Miller at the end of the same lap before heading off in pursuit of early leader Fabio Quartararo, the pole man having escaped at the front initially.

Reeling him in steadily, Marquez dived for the lead at Turn 11 on lap eight with a robust but contact-free overtake before nudging his advantage out to the chequered flag over the Frenchman.

Though it wasn’t the win that would have capped off a spectacular rookie season for the youngster, Quartararo held on for a comfortable second place finish, a result that lifts him to fifth in the overall standings and ensures he finishes the year ahead of factory Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi.

Jack Miller led through the first turn before being pounced upon by Quartararo before settling in third to get a welcome fifth podium of the year ahead of Andrea Dovizioso and Alex Rins in fourth and fifth respectively.

Having shown strong pace in practice, Maverick Vinales endured an anonymous race in a lonely sixth, clear of Suzuki’s Joan Mir and Rossi, the seven-time premier class champion finishing well down on his Yamaha counterparts.

In a race of high attrition, Andrea Iannone looked on course for a top ten but failed to complete the final lap, promoting his Aprilia team-mate Aleix Espargaro into ninth, with Pol Espargaro completing the top ten for KTM.

Tito Rabat secured 11th from Mika Kallio, with Jorge Lorenzo coming round to complete his final-ever MotoGP race in a distant but solid 13th position. With all 15 finishers scoring, Karel Abraham and Hafizh Syahrin picked up digits, the latter doing so in his final MotoGP race for now.

Elsewhere, LCR Honda endured a disastrous double DNF for the second race in succession, with Cal Crutchlow crashing early on at turn one, while Johann Zarco was caught up in a bizarre crash that involved three bikes at the same corner.

Beginning with Danilo Petrucci going down by himself, Zarco followed suit in his own separate crash a few seconds later, only for Iker Lecuona – who was running inside the points on his MotoGP debut – suffering the same front-end slip a few moments later too.

However, in a dramatic twist, as Zarco walked away with his back to the Tarmac from his accident, he was collected by Lecuona’s sliding KTM, flipping him up and backwards. Despite the evident shock of the impact and being stretchered away, Zarco was later seen seemingly unharmed back in his pit box.

2019 Valencia MotoGP RACE RESULTS