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Valencia MotoGP: Marquez beats Quartararo for 12th win of 2019

Marc Marquez capped off his sixth title-winning MotoGP season with a dominant victory in the Valencia Grand Prix to secure the 2019 teams' title for the Repsol Honda squad

Petronas SRT Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo led for the first seven laps before being passed by a recovering Marquez, and was unable to mount a challenge to retake the position over the remaining tours.

Poleman Quartararo had run side by side with Pramac's Jack Miller on the run to the first corner at the start, but had to concede the lead to the rocketship Ducati.

He quickly disposed of Miller after a couple of corners and began to build up a small lead, while Marquez had to fight through from sixth after getting hung out at the first turn from second on the grid.

Quartararo held a margin of seven tenths of a second by the third lap, with Marquez soon up to second after snatching second from Miller at the final corner at the end of the previous tour.

The Honda rider slashed Quartararo's lead by a couple of tenths over the next three laps, and made his decisive move on the eighth tour of the 27-lap race at the Turn 11 left-hander - squeezing Quartararo out to the edge of the circuit on the exit.

Marquez immediately got his lead up to six tenths, though Quartararo was able to ensure this remained stagnant for a handful of laps.

Then with nine laps to go, Marquez moved a second out of reach for the first time and would ease across the line for his 12th win of the year by over 1.5s.

Quartararo came under some threat from Miller after he was passed by Marquez on lap eight, but was able to quash the Pramac rider's challenge and ended a sensational rookie season with his seventh podium.

Miller's attention was soon turned to fending off Ducati stablemate Andrea Dovizioso for the final podium spot.

He did so successfully and cruised to a fifth podium of the year ahead of Dovizioso and the Suzuki of Alex Rins.

Maverick Vinales' expected challenge for the victory never materialised, and he was consigned to sixth on the works Yamaha ahead of Joan Mir (Suzuki), his team-mate Valentino Rossi, and the Espargaro brothers - Aleix's Aprilia ahead of KTM-mounted Pol.

Jorge Lorenzo ended his career in MotoGP with his best result since June's Italian GP in 13th.

Fellow Honda riders Cal Crutchlow and Johann Zarco of LCR failed to see the chequered flag after crashes, with the latter walking away from a horrifying incident.

Zarco lost the front of his RC213V going through Turn 6, with Tech3 debutant Iker Lecuona doing the same just seconds later.

As Zarco got to his feet he was struck by the KTM. Both he and Lecuona appeared to escape uninjured.

Ducati's Danilo Petrucci crashed at the same turn just moments before, while SRT's Franco Morbidelli, Andrea Iannone (Aprilia) and Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro also failed to finish.

Race result

Pos Rider Team Laps Gap
1 Marc Marquez Honda 27 41m21.469s
2 Fabio Quartararo Petronas Yamaha 27 1.026s
3 Jack Miller Pramac Ducati 27 2.409s
4 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 27 3.326s
5 Alex Rins Suzuki 27 3.508s
6 Maverick Vinales Yamaha 27 8.829s
7 Joan Mir Suzuki 27 10.622s
8 Valentino Rossi Yamaha 27 22.992s
9 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 27 32.704s
10 Pol Espargaro KTM 27 32.973s
11 Tito Rabat Avintia Ducati 27 42.795s
12 Mika Kallio KTM 27 45.732s
13 Jorge Lorenzo Honda 27 51.044s
14 Karel Abraham Avintia Ducati 27 1m04.871s
15 Hafizh Syahrin Tech3 KTM 27 1m16.487s
- Andrea Iannone Aprilia 26 Retirement
- Franco Morbidelli Petronas Yamaha 18 Retirement
- Danilo Petrucci Ducati 13 Retirement
- Johann Zarco LCR Honda 13 Retirement
- Iker Lecuona Tech3 KTM 13 Retirement
- Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda 10 Retirement
- Michele Pirro Ducati 8 Retirement
- Francesco Bagnaia Pramac Ducati 0 Withdrawn

Riders' standings

Pos Rider Points
1 Marc Marquez 420
2 Andrea Dovizioso 269
3 Maverick Vinales 211
4 Alex Rins 205
5 Fabio Quartararo 192
6 Danilo Petrucci 176
7 Valentino Rossi 174
8 Jack Miller 165
9 Cal Crutchlow 133
10 Franco Morbidelli 115
11 Pol Espargaro 100
12 Joan Mir 92
13 Takaaki Nakagami 74
14 Aleix Espargaro 63
15 Francesco Bagnaia 54
16 Andrea Iannone 43
17 Miguel Oliveira 33
18 Johann Zarco 30
19 Jorge Lorenzo 28
20 Tito Rabat 23
21 Stefan Bradl 16
22 Michele Pirro 9
23 Hafizh Syahrin 9
24 Karel Abraham 9
25 Sylvain Guintoli 7
26 Mika Kallio 7
27 Bradley Smith 0


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