The 23-year old started the race from second on the grid behind Italian multiple world champion and closest title rival Valentino Rossi, while 2015 world champion Jorge Lorenzo completed the front row.

Lorenzo got off to the better start but Honda’s Marquez overtook him on the fourth lap.

With 19 laps remaining Marquez’s path to the season-long crown was cleared when Rossi’s race came to a bruising end. The Italian slipped at a hair-pin bend on turn 10 bringing his title challenge to a close.

Lorenzo followed suit with five laps to go, hitting the deck at turn nine.

Marquez was then free to cruise to victory ahead of Italian Andrea Dovizioso and fellow Spaniard Maverick Vinales.

The win gave Marquez an unassailable 77-point lead over Rossi with three races left. Next up is the Australian Grand Prix next weekend.

Four in a row for Ogier

As Marquez celebrated his third world MotoGP title, some 10 500 kilometres west Sebastien Ogier was celebrating his fourth straight Rally crown.

The 32-year-old Frenchman needed a top three finish to secure the championship with two races spare and he made absolute sure of it when he steered his VW Polo to the top of the podium holding off the challenge of Spaniard Dani Sordo for his fifth victory of the season.

Ogier became the fourth driver in history to claim a quartet of World rally titles.

Sordo had hoped to become the first local driver to win on home soil since Carlos Sainz in 1995 but he once again struggled with understeer and had to settle for second place at 15.6 seconds.

It was his second runners-up finish from the last three races.

Belgium’s Thierry Neuville completed the final podium in third a further 59.4sec behind.

Neuville moved level in second place in the season long standings with Andreas Mikkelsen who crashed out on Saturday.

With two stops left Ogier is on 222 points with both Mikkelsen and Neuville on 127 points.

The penultimate stop of the season is the 72nd edition of the Wales Rally GB at the end of the month. (Euronews)