Jorge Lorenzo beats Rossi to secure MotoGP title

Rossi needs at least a second-place finish to guarantee his first title since 2009 without depending on Lorenzo’s result.

The crash did not directly influence the title race because Rossi already knew he would have to start from the back of the grid after a penalty received in the previous race for kicking Marquez during a dispute for position, causing the Spaniard to crash and retire.

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Spain’s Jorge Lorenzo is the only man that can deny Rossi a 10th world title in all categories as he lies just seven points adrift of his Yamaha teammate.

“It was the most important and my best lap in all my life”, said Lorenzo, who scored his fifth pole of the season. The 28-year-old Spaniard started from pole position and stayed in front from the start. “I was crying throughout the victory lap”, he said.

In the build up to the race, Rossi had claimed that Marquez – out of the running for the big prize – was deliberately trying to scupper his title challenge. “I think from the middle of the race this information [Rossi’s progress in the race] can be good to know, but I think the race plan is to try to be as fast as possible and try to finish as strong as possible”. It’s disrespectful to me as a motorcycle racer, it’s disrespectful to my team who have 50 staff here every weekend busting their arse for me to finish one place, one second, one tenth higher up than what I was going to. “But today was embarrassing for everybody because it was unbelievable, the behavior of Marquez is something very bad for everything, especially for the sport”.

“Ultimately we all hope that he will win this championship because he has been leading throughout the whole season so I think that he deserves it”.

Still on lap three, Iannone lost the front at turn 12 and crashed out of the race, meaning Rossi was now into ninth and the crowd was going wild as they could not believe what they were seeing. Both Pedrosa and Marquez were closing in on the first-placed Lorenzo, but their battle for second place allowed Lorenzo a few precious breathing space and he calmly took the chequered flag. “I am happy because now everybody see what I said in Australia and I don’t understand the behavior of Marquez but sincerely for me it is very hard to say something to him because I hope that he will understand what he did in these last three races in the future of his career”.

However, the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport said in a statement it had dismissed Rossi’s application and upheld a stewards’ decision from last month’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

Ducati Team’s wildcard Michele Pirro was 13th fastest, while Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) improved from 17th in FP1 to end the day in 15th overall, but was still 1.397s off the pace of Lorenzo.

It was the second time that Rossi entered the season-ending race with the points lead but failed to win the title.