MotoGP 2015: Masterful victory for Marc Marquez in Australia

Marc Marquez starred in another spectacular race today, at one of the most beautiful and fastest tracks on the calendar. The reigning MotoGP World Champion claimed victory in the Australian GP, in what is his his fifth win of the season and 50th of his Grand Prix career. The Repsol Honda Team rider had a score to settle with Phillip Island, and was finally able to win there in the premier class after passing Jorge Lorenzo on the final lap. Dani Pedrosa, who upped his pace from practice, eventually finished fifth.

The MotoGP race at Phillip Island today is one that will go down in history.

It will do so due to it marking the 50th victory for Marc Marquez across all classes, being the first that he achieved in Australia in MotoGP, and because of the amazing show put on by the Repsol Honda rider. The final lap began with four riders separated by less than a second: Lorenzo led the way and Marquez was in second place, having exchanged constant overtaking moves with Andrea Iannone and Valentino Rossi on the previous lap. Displaying all his talent, Marquez cut the gap of more than 6 tenths to Lorenzo, passed his rival and set the fastest lap of the race to take the win. 

Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa tried to stay in the leading group in the early stages of the race. However, he gradually lost ground and became involved in a different battle, eventually fending off Maverick Viñales and Cal Crutchlow in the fight for fifth place.  In five days' time, MotoGP returns to action at Sepang, Malaysia, in the penultimate round of the 2015 season.

Marc Marquez       1st       40:33.849

"It was a really fun race ‒ certainly one to remember ‒ and it had different phases to it. At the beginning there was a lot of overtaking, then when I passed Jorge it seemed that I was breaking away. However, I overheated the front tyre and had to slow my pace. At the end I overtook Iannone and Valentino and I had a great last lap; I don't know where I pulled that time out from, but it was what made the difference for us! I want to thank all the team, Honda and all the fans. After a difficult season it’s always nice to finish the year with some victories!"