Marquez: I don't know who will win this championship

Defending MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez says the 2017 title battle is wide open after nearest challenger Andrea Dovizioso’s victory at Motegi.

Marquez finished as the runner-up after a stunning fight between the pair in the wet, with Dovizioso getting the better of the Honda rider on the last lap to reduce his title advantage to 11 points with three races left to run.

“I don’t know who will win this championship but it is amazing to fight like we did today in rain conditions,” said Marquez.

“For me, second place is OK because we are in front of the championship but I took a lot of risks and we knew before this race that it will be difficult because here, Ducati and also Dovizioso are very fast here every year.

“We tried and in wet conditions I felt good, but today in the race with a lot of water, it was a little bit more difficult. I pushed, I took a lot of risks in a few laps but I saw that Dovi also was able to be very fast,” he added.

“Then I made a mistake in turn 8 and I already start to feel that my bike was shaking because of the slipstream of Dovi. He overtook me in turn 11 because he was stronger on the brake point. I was very far and anyway I said I will try at the last corner and see how it is, and it was a bit like the same situation in Austria. But second place was great, I’m happy because we are in a good way.”

The stakes were high but the title rivals traded blows fearlessly in their pursuit of glory and there was plenty of mutual respect on display at the end as they embraced in parc ferme.

“We fight in a good way and the only corner that was in the limit was turn 3, and I want to say sorry, but I braked very far from him and I realised that either I go inside, or I touch him,” Marquez said.

“I went inside and that was on the limit but the rest of the battle was very nice and I enjoyed a lot. Now we are already past Motegi, which is one of the circuits that in some years I struggled a lot, but now we go to other race tracks that normally I enjoy more.

“The championship is very close and I heard some people say it was almost done, but it was 16 points and now it is 11 and this is really tough to win,” he added.

“Dovi also is very consistent, very fast, and in rain conditions he is also very strong; so Australia, Malaysia, Valencia can be rain conditions also but the most important is that in each conditions, we are there. We will try to manage in the best way.”