MotoGP: Marquez crowned champion as Lorenzo wins

Marc Marquez became MotoGP world champion in his rookie season as he took third place in an epic Valencia decider won by Jorge Lorenzo.

With a 13-point advantage, 20-year-old Marquez only needed fourth place to become the first rookie champion since Kenny Roberts in 1978 and the youngest ever premier class title-winner.

Lorenzo needed a win and to hope disaster befell Marquez, and he did his utmost by blasting his Yamaha into the lead at the start, as Marquez fell to third behind Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

It appeared in the first half of the race that Lorenzo's tactic was to slow the pace and bunch the pack to give rivals ample chance to attack Marquez.

Instead all the action was around Lorenzo, as he and Pedrosa engaged in a spectacular tussle.

Six times in the first seven laps Pedrosa overtook the double champion, only for Lorenzo to force a way back through each time, as well as hanging on under braking through countless other close calls.

The crunch came approaching one-third distance, when Pedrosa took the lead at Turn 1 and Lorenzo's retaliation into Turn 2 ended in contact that sent both wide.

As Marquez swept into the lead, Pedrosa fell to fifth behind the swiftly-recovering Lorenzo, Alvaro Bautista and Valentino Rossi.

Race direction will investigate this clash after the race.

Lorenzo was soon back in the lead, as Marquez made it easy for him as soon as his very determined championship rival appeared on his tail.

The Honda man did repass Lorenzo briefly further around the lap, before deciding to play it safe.

Lorenzo then abandoned his previous strategy and made a break for it, leaving Marquez to his own devices and setting a blistering, lap-record-smashing pace.

The Spaniard went on to take his eighth win of 2013 - two more than Marquez - by 3.9 seconds.

Pedrosa recovered to second, with Marquez settling for a third place that made him champion after a remarkable debut season.

Rossi and Bautista fell away in fourth and fifth.

Cal Crutchlow was an early crasher in his final race for Tech 3 Yamaha, leaving Stefan Bradl and Bradley Smith to finish sixth and seventh.

Nicky Hayden led the Ducati ranks in his farewell appearance for the team in eighth. Pramac rider Andrea Iannone had given his factory counterparts a very hard time but fell late on.

Aleix Espargaro came out on top in CRT again in his Aspar swanswong, as qualifying sensation Danilo Petrucci dropped back.

Results - 30 laps:

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike               Time/Gap
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                46m10.302s
 2.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                    +3.934s
 3.  Marc Marquez      Honda                    +7.357s
 4.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                  +10.579s
 5.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda           +14.965s
 6.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda               +24.399s
 7.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha           +29.043s
 8.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                  +39.893s
 9.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                  +53.196s
10.  Michele Pirro     Ducati                +1m02.983s
11.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia         +1m04.197s
12.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  +1m06.826s
13.  Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  +1m11.481s
14.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW        +1m13.643s
15.  Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  +1m24.249s
16.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  +1m33.010s
17.  Michael Laverty   PBM Aprilia               +1 lap
18.  Luca Scassa       Cardion Aprilia           +1 lap
19.  Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda         +1 lap
20.  Martin Bauer      Remus Suter-BMW           +1 lap

Retirements:

     Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati            26 laps
     Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia            23 laps
     Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha             9 laps
     Yonny Hernandez   Pramac Ducati             8 laps
     Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW            3 laps
     Damian Cudlin     PBM-Aprilia               3 laps