Marc Márquez has passed the Pacific leg with flying colours, claiming his third win in three weeks – after those taken in Japan and Malaysia – and setting the best qualifying time and fastest lap in the race. Commanding the race from the first turn, the Repsol rider set a pace that nobody was able to match and crossed the finish line alone to strengthen his world championship lead and continue setting records this season.
His rivals’ resistance lasted just a few turns. When the red lights went out, they saw how a good start from Marc Márquez allowed him to reach the first turn up front. Bradley Smith passed him before the end of this lap, but on coming out of the last turn before the finish line at Phillip Island, the Repsol rider took first, maintaining this position to the chequered flag. Márquez registered a fastest lap in the second lap and started to open the gap with his rivals tenth-by-tenth, with an advantage of more than two seconds in the sixth lap and three seconds in the ninth, the lap in which he registered the best time of the day, just one-tenth off the pole time he registered yesterday.
Focused from start to end, the Repsol rider had a small scare with a backmarker in the closing minutes of the race but this became no more than an anecdote and Márquez secured his ninth win of the season, strengthening his world championship lead with a 12 point advantage over Pol Espargaró – second today –, and 17 over Nico Terol –third–.
With today’s result, Márquez has equalled the record for the most wins by a Spanish rider in a single season in 125cc, held by Jorge Martínez ‘Aspar’ since 1988, and has equalled Dirk Raudies’ record from 1993, the year in which Márquez was born. Furthermore, today’s win has given the legendary Spanish brand Derbi, with which he races, the points it needs to take its ninth manufacturers’ world title. With two races to go, the Repsol rider is one win off the ten achieved by Fausto Gresini in 1987 and two off Valentino Rossi’s eleven in 1997.
Marc Márquez, 1st, 38’13.008 sec. >> Audio
“It’s been a complicated and very tough weekend because every time we went out on the track, the conditions changed a lot and that sometimes makes it difficult to find a good set-up and gain confidence on the bike. In the end, we’ve had a good weekend, especially in the race, which has been very good for the championship and for the team. It was very difficult to break away here and even more so with this wind and for that reason I’m very happy. It is an important win, but at the same time, we have to keep focused on the last two races. They’ll be two very important races, the most important in my life so far and we’ll have to keep the same mentality”.
