MOTOGP
FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 16 / OCTOBER 19-21, 2018
TWIN RING MOTEGI / MOTEGI, JAPAN
P58
More congratulations—not this time injuri-
ous—came from the Honda rider whose five
titles he had equaled: Australian legend, Mick
Doohan. And thankfully, unlike in several Euro-
pean and other venues, Rossi fans managed
not to boo him on the podium.
The Repsol Honda rider's 43rd premier-
class win, the 69th in his career, came at
the end of what has in the latter part of this
season become a typical MotoGP race. In the
absence of the injured Jorge Lorenzo, he and
title rival Andrea Dovizioso were joined up front
by LCR Castrol Honda's Cal Crutchlow, all
playing a wait-for-it game of tire preservation.
Dovi had qualified on pole, and led away.
Marquez, on row two, made a blazing start to get
straight into second. "I knew the first lap would
be one of the most important," he said later.
From there he dogged the Ducati's wheel
tracks. He did pass once, briefly, on lap 14,
He could have played it safe and let the
contest resolve itself in the next week or two.
But that's not his way. He needed to finish
in front of Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso to win it
now. And he'd made sure of that.
Marc had stopped at a prearranged place,
with brother Alex and friends awaiting him for
his orchestrated celebration, when the shoul-
der (also dislocated at Silverstone in 2013)
popped out under Redding's ministrations,
and he promptly lay down. Buoyed up by jubi-
lation, he made light of the matter.
"It happens often when I am training at
home. My brother put it back for me. I will see
a doctor in December and it will be fixed," he
laughed.
The celebration was a forgivably cheesy
retro video game accessed via six stairs, and
in which he then reached "Level 7." The job
was done.
