We cannot say we had great battles in this race, but we cannot say nothing happened neither.
With Motegi result, Marc Marquez mathematically got the world championship 2016. His pace has been fast for all the weekend-end, starting from second place on the grid, took the lead, got some gap and went to win.
Marc has definitely a great talent who grew up race after race and who makes few mistakes but not that much. Despite the inferiority, even if a little bit, of his Honda compare to Yamaha, he always played is game fairly and got always points. I think his determination has been the key of this success.
Yamaha had a double fiasco. Rossi gave a bit of fun in the first part of the race struggling with Marquez. Then after passing Lorenzo he tried to recovery the gap on Marc but at turn 11 he arrives wide and too close to the limit, loosing the front end. The championship is officially over. This mistake could compromise also his second position but Lorenzo, at few laps to the end, crashes at turn 10. A very strange crash though that I would define a "Michelin crash", where he lost the front end without pushing and during acceleration.
With both the Yamaha riders out of the game, Dovizioso can take easily the second place, followed by Vinales and Aleix Espargaro.
Suzuki worked very well all the weekend and their progression during the year is something of admirable.
Dovizioso has been even better probably helped by the low temperatures which we know they are appreciated by Ducati.
The battle for the second and third place in championship remains open. Next round in Philip Island
