Jorge Lorenzo won his second career Japanese Grand Prix and kept his hopes alive for a third MotoGP championship. Lorenzo held off points leader Marc Márquez for the victory as the rookie Márquez will carry a thirteen point lead to the season finale at Valencia in a fortnight. Spaniards Dani Pedrosa and Álvaro Bautista rounded out the top four.
Stefan Brandl finished fifth ahead of the Yamahas of Valentino Rossi, Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith. Nicky Hayden fell from third on the grid back to tenth but not before passing his Ducati teammate Andrea Dovizioso for ninth on the final lap. Katsuyuki Nakasuga finished eleventh as a wild card entry, Colin Edwards was the top CRT bike in twelfth with fellow CRT competitor Randy de Puniet and the customer Ducatis of Andrea Iannone and Yonny Hernández rounding out the points.
Heading to Valencia, Lorenzo and Márquez are level on wins at Circuito Ricardo Tormo at one apiece. Lorenzo's lone win came in MotoGP in his 2010 championship season with Márquez's lone Valencia win coming last year in Moto2.
In Moto2, Pol Espargaró clinched the title thanks to a victory and a first lap retirement of British rider Scott Redding. The Moto3 title will be decided at Valencia as the top three riders are covered by five points. Álex Espargaró, younger brother of Marc Márquez, won his first career race with Maverick Viñales finishing second and jumping to second in points, two behind Luis Salom. German Jonas Folger rounded out the podium. Salom and second place in the points entering Motegi Álex Rins both finished outside the points with Salom retiring and Rins finishing twenty-fourth. Rins dropped to third and remains five behind Salom.
V8 Supercars at Surfers Paradise
Thanks to a victory Saturday and a retirement of his teammate Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes now leads the V8 Supercars point standings with two rounds to go. Lowndes and co-driver Warren Luff took race one of the Gold Coast 600 weekend and the points lead from Whincup. Whincup along with his co-driver Paul Dumbrell recovered to finish fourth in race two but still lost out on the Endurance Cup to Lowndes and Luff who finished eighth on Sunday and took the Endurance Cup by seventy-eight points. Lowndes leads Whincup by six points in the V8 Supercars Championship standings.
In race two, Ford driver David Reynolds and co-driver Dean Canto picked up their first career V8 Supercars victories holding off Fabian Coulthard and Luke Youlden. Russell Ingall and last IndyCar winner at Surfers Paradise Ryan Briscoe finished third.
Ogier's Comeback
Having already clinched the 2013 World Rally Championship, Sébastien Ogier came from 46.8 seconds back to win Rally Catalunya by 32.9 seconds over Finn and Volkswagen teammate Jari-Matti Latvala. Citroën driver Mikko Hirvonen rounded out the podium. Catalan driver Dani Sordo was a factor all weekend before retiring from the event after an accident with one stage to go.
Robert Kubica finished ninth overall, the top WRC-2 competitor, and in do so clinched the 2013 World Rally Championship-2 title, a support championship to WRC. In seven WRC-2 rallies, Kubica has five wins, a second and a sixth.
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