Grid penalty gave Marquez extra motivation in Malaysia

The newly crowned world champion was handed a six-place grid penalty after being adjudged to have impeded Andrea Iannone during qualifying.

Given it was Marquez's second offence of the season he was given a harsher punishment from the stewards, but it did not stop him claiming a ninth win of the season.

He benefited from Valentino Rossi's crash, though, the Italian having set a stunning pace for the majority of the race before coming off with four laps to go.

"Today was an extremely hard race because I felt like I did a great job all weekend but we didn't have the perfect bike on the race," said Marquez.

"I was just riding by instinct, not by using the head, I was just trying to race, to push. I nearly crashed three or four times during the race.

"It was a very hard race because we start from seventh place, so that [gave me] extra motivation because starting from the third row I never won in the past..

And here comes win number 70 for @marcmarquez93 Another nice round number to take a record 24th Premier Class Constructors Title for Honda!!!! @MotoGP #MalasyianGP #thepowerofdreams pic.twitter.com/6fmm2afWEn

— Repsol Honda Team (@HRC_MotoGP) November 4, 2018

"The first lap was good but not the best one of my career. I overtook some riders but then I saw that Valentino was pushing really hard from the beginning then I pushed too, it was like qualifying practice, but I overheated my tyres.

"When I just overtook Johann [Zarco] I just started to struggle a lot, looks like Valentino was really close but I started to struggle, I started to feel uncomfortable. I lost the front in last turn, I saved with [my] elbow.

"Then I say, 'okay, cool down, try to be smart, try to understand which is the situation with the tyres'. I did it, and then step by step I started to feel better, I started to feel like still I was catching tenth by tenth Valentino and that was another extra motivation."

Much to the disappoint of the fans in Sepang, a mouth-watering battle with Rossi at the front failed to materialise and Marquez was also disappointed.

"The plan was to arrive [on Rossi's wheel] and try to fight," he added. "We were both riding on the limit, it was a really fast pace. Our level was very equal.