After winning at Aragon last month, and then last Thursday before the Japanese Grand Prix, Marc Marquez was dismissive of the notion that he would wrap up a third MotoGP title at Motegi. He even did his best to not talk about it as his title.

The odds on him winning it were down to a minuscule 1/50, and based on what we had seen from Marquez in the opening 14 grands prix, he was not going to drop it. Wrapping it up at Motegi was an outside possibility at best, but that it all came together is nothing less than Marquez deserves.

To close it out with three races to spare, in a domain as evenly-matched as MotoGP, against the likes of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo and in a year as disruptive as 2016 has been, is about as impressive as it gets.