As the MotoGP season draws to an end, we know Marc Marquez is the winner in the riders’ championship, but there are still other trophies to hand out. A couple more of them were handed out this weekend.
With three races left to go, Fabio Quartararo of Petronas Yamaha SRT has taken the rookie of the year award. Quartararo earned his sixth podium of the year in Japan over the weekend, behind Marc Marquez and ahead of Andrea Dovizioiso, Quartararo has had an absolutely smasher of a year, with four poles and 10 front row starts to go with his podiums. He’s looking like he might be The Racer Who Finally Challenges Marquez. You can bet Yamaha is desperate to hang on to him, and he’ll be a major focus of their 2020 plans, and is desperately hoping Honda doesn’t grab him in the future.
Speaking of Honda, Big Red has wrapped up the constructor’s championship for 2019, thanks to Marquez’s Motegi win. The riders’ championship, the constructor’s championship—all that’s missing is the team championship, and for now, Ducati is 17 points ahead of the Repsol Honda squad. Stay tuned on this one!
