Marquez: Finally, we beat Dovi on the last lap!

Marc Marquez said he finally earned some revenge after getting the better of Andrea Dovizioso in a last lap battle at the inaugural Thailand MotoGP.

The Repsol Honda rider sealed his second successive race win after Dovizioso ran slightly wide at the final corner, enabling Marquez to cut back underneath to clinch a narrow victory at the Chang International Circuit.

Marquez has come out second best to Dovizioso in their previous last lap exchanges, but the reigning champion said he adapted a different strategy for Sunday’s race.

“In the end we got revenge after (losing) three times and the fourth time we changed the styles a little bit, but honestly speaking my strategy was another one, to try to push when there remained ten, eight laps more or less,” he said.

“I saw that Dovi’s pace was good and I was able to be slightly faster, maybe, but I wasn’t able to overtake him because my front tyre was overheating and I wasn’t able to stop the bike on the brake points.

“For that reason I tried to attack before the last lap, to try to cool down a little bit the front tyre, but Dovi was really smart and he overtook me really quick every time. Then I said okay, we will see on the last lap. I tried to forget everything, the championship, all these things and I just give all that I have,” added Marquez.

“My goal was to try and arrive on the last corner in front because when three laps remained, I tried to overtake him there but I was not able to stop the bike in a good way and he overtook me.

“So we changed places and I did like Dovi style and he did Marquez style, and in the end it finished in a good way for us.”

Yamaha riders Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi were in contention, eventually finishing third and fourth respectively, and Marquez said the race panned out exactly as he had anticipated in terms of the fastest riders.

“The race went exactly like I expected. I tried to push in the first four laps but I saw that the feeling was not the perfect one, with the full tank and all these things, so I prefer to be behind them. But then I overheated the front tyre and I never recovered,” he said.

“I was losing the front all the time but both Yamahas were very strong at this track, but the strongest one was Dovizioso. He deserves also this victory, but in the end, last corner, and the last five laps were very nice for the Thai fans.”

Marquez has now opened a lead of 72 points over Dovizioso and will have the chance to secure the MotoGP title for the fifth time at Motegi Japan, but the Spaniard says there is some work to be beforehand.

“I feel in the Japanese staff all weekend that they had a special motivation to have the first match ball in front of our big boss, so I was pushing a lot and they were pushing a lot all weekend,” he said.

“But if we want to have a chance to win the championship in Motegi, we need to improve in two or three areas because the Ducati there will be very strong; I was behind Dovi for a lot of laps here and I saw a few points were he was very strong, so if we want to beat him in Motegi, we must improve some points to be faster or it will not be possible.”