MOTOGP
FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 17 / OCTOBER 4-6, 2016
BURIRAM CIRCUIT / BURIRAM, THAIL AND
P66
But then I started to study him,
and I was able to win."
It sounds straightforward, but
he admitted that after 10 of the 26
laps, as the gap stretched towards
a second and his rival's high cor-
ner speed threatened to trump his
Honda's better top speed, he won-
dered whether to settle for safety.
"I decided to push for two laps
to see—that is when I did my best
lap" [a new record, on lap 11].
Marquez realized he could still
fight, so "I relaxed a bit to wait for
the end."
Quartararo had to be happy and
proud after a second narrow de-
The race was run in front of
a capacity crowd at the Chang
Circuit outside Buriram. Blazing
heat and bright sunshine defied
forecasts of a return of the tor-
rential rain that had delayed the
start of practice and qualifying on
Friday.
Stands of Marquez fans, here
outnumbering the yellow-clad
Rossi crew, celebrated his win
noisily.
"I was planning this weekend
to win the race…doesn't matter
about the championship," said
Marquez. "Fabio was very fast,
and he took a gap in the middle.
IIIMY OWN RACE:
93 MARC MARQUEZ
1ST MOTOGP
"I'm so happy!" said Marquez. "When
you have an advantage like I had, you
realize you are so close to the champi-
onship, but you need to find some-
thing to keep you mo vated. Today it
was winning the race, and it's what I
did. Fabio was so fast during the race,
but I never gave up, even during the
middle of the race, where it looked like
he was escaping. It was a beau ful way
to win the championship."
04 ANDREA DOVIZIOSO
4TH MOTOGP
"It was rather a difficult race because,
unfortunately, we weren't able to
improve enough in T3 and T4, where
also in prac ce we were losing out to
the frontrunners," said Dovi. "It's a pity,
but I'd like to offer my congratula ons
to Marc and his team because they
have had a spectacular season. We
tried to fight against them, but it just
wasn't sufficient, so now we'll have
to work even harder in view of next
season."
Fabio Quartararo (20)
dives for the inside
on the last corner
of the final lap. He
almost made the
pass stick.
