Marc Marquez playfully said that he finally got revenge on Andrea Dovizioso after winning his first last corner battle against the Italian at the fourth time of asking.

Marquez got one hand on the MotoGP title after extending his lead in the World Championship to 77 points after a dramatic last lap victory over Dovizioso. It was the first time in the fourth time of asking that Marquez managed to get the better of the factory Ducati man when the race has come down to the final corner.

Understandably delighted with his victory, the World Champion joked and said he finally got his revenge.

“In the end we get revenge, on the fourth time we change the styles a bit,” said the 25-year-old.

“My strategy was another one, it was try to push the last eighth to ten laps more or less, but I saw Dovi’s pace was good. I was able to be slightly faster but I wasn’t able to overtake him as my front tyre was kind of overheating and I wasn’t able to stop the bike well on the brake points.

“For that reason I tried to attack before the last lap to try to cool down a little bit the front tyre, but Dovi was really smart and overtook me really quickly every time. Then I said, ‘ok, we will see on the last lap.’ I tried to give everything’; I forget the championship and all these things.

“I gave it everything I have and my goal was to try to arrive in the last corner in front as on the last three laps I tried to overtake him there but I was not able to stop the bike in a good way and he overtook me, so we swapped and I did the Dovi style and he did the Marc style and it ended a good way for us.”

Over the past two seasons, Marquez and Dovizioso have found themselves as the most consistent riders and the top two in the World Championship over the previous two years. Marquez said that he always enjoyed his battles with Dovizioso in part down to the mutual respect between the two riders.

“Already last year and this year we have had some great battles and it’s nice because they always arrive in the last corner,” he said.

“I always give everything until the last meter, but Dovi also gives everything until the last meter. So this is a good way, always have respect.

“But we have different riding styles, different bikes and then he has strong points and I have strong points so this means we can play in a good way, or overtake the other.

“Today we swapped the styles; I was Dovi and was Marc, he went in really fast and go slightly wide, but was very, very close to achieve his goal of a block pass. I was very, very close but I was able to stop in the last meters. It was exactly the same movement as in Austria last year.”

Despite claiming his seventh win of the season on the final corner, Marquez said that it wasn’t all plain sailing this weekend and that late work from his team last night helped set him up to fight for victory today.

“The issues existed this weekend,” he explained. “I was in the box till nine, and then I go to dinner because it’s important to relax, but they were here until I think 10:30 more or less. They were working a lot because we had a few troubles we didn’t understand.

“We went out on the race with different electronics things because we were struggling in a few areas that normally we don’t have a problem but for some reason this weekend, yes.

“Looks like everything is happy inside the box and looks like we are enjoying but we are working very, very hard and this makes the difference in the end.”