Marc Marquez celebrated an incredible win today at the Twin Ring Motegi, becoming the 2018 MotoGP World Champion with three races remaining ahead of Honda President and CEO Takahiro Hachigo, who stood with him on the podium.
After starting from sixth on the grid, Marc was able to immediately recover four positions, took second place and competed in a race-long battle against title contender Andrea Dovizioso and Honda rider Cal Crutchlow. With two laps to go, the Italian driver fell out of the race shortly after Marc overtook him in preparation for a duel on the last lap.
With his eighth win in 2018 and the 69th in his career (across all classes), Marquez is the youngest rider of all time to reach the milestone of seven world championships (125 cc in 2010, Moto2 in 2012 and MotoGP in 2013, 2014 and 2016), 2017 and 2018); He does so at the age of 25 years and 246 days and takes the record from Mike Hailwood, who was 26 years and 140 days when he won his seventh title, the 1966 350 crown.
Dani Pedrosa started from position 11 and recovered to position eight at the end of the first lap. However, he was fighting for a good pace and couldn’t improve any further.
Marc’s win today also extended Honda’s lead in the Constructors’ Championship to 47 points and the Repsol Honda Team’s lead in the team standings to 51 points.