VALENCIA: World champion Marc Marquez won the Valencia GP on Sunday with a superb performance for his 12th victory of the season to ensure that the Repsol Honda team won the teams’ world title.

The 26-year-old, who began the day behind Petronas Yamaha’s pole-sitter Fabio Quartararo, overtook the French rookie with a superb move in the eighth lap and never looked back to finish the race in 41 minutes, 21.469 seconds.

Quartararo finished second, 1.026 seconds behind Spaniard Marquez, while Australia’s Jack Miller was third for the non-works Pramac Ducati team.

Marquez, who won his sixth world title last month, recovered from an early fall to top the warm-up session earlier in the day but looked unstoppable in the race despite a slow start.

Victory meant that the Repsol Honda team captured the team’s championship ahead of Ducati, in addition to the constructors’ title for a memorable triple crown.

“It’s been a difficult weekend because we’ve tried new things,” said Marquez. “It’s a perfect season which will be difficult to repeat.”

Quartararo again fell just short in his bid to become the first Frenchman to win a MotoGP race since 1999, but the 20-year-old was delighted with his first season among the elite.

“Nobody could have imagined at the start of the season that I would have six pole positions and seven podiums. It’s incredible to finish the season in this way,” said Quartararo, who ended fifth in the overall standings.

Triple MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo, who announced on Thursday that he would retire after the season-ending race, kept his cool in windy conditions that made racing tricky with a number of riders crashing out.

The 32-year-old Mallorcan, representing the Repsol Honda team, finished his illustrious career and an injury-blighted season in 13th place.

“I didn’t feel good in the race so I decided to keep a constant pace so I could avoid a crash and be able to enjoy my final race,” Lorenzo said. “Many thanks to Honda for their support during a year that has been very difficult.”

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2019