Marc Marquez can clinch the MotoGP title in nine different ways at the Japanese Grand Prix

IN a season where most talk around Marc Marquez has revolved around numbers, this weekend is proudly brought to you by the number nine.

Repsol Honda's Spanish rider Marc Marquez competes in the MotoGP race Aragon Grand Prix at the Motorland racetrack in Alcaniz on September 28, 2014. AFP PHOTO/ JAIME REINA

IN a season where the bulk of the talk around Marc Marquez has revolved around numbers, this weekend’s Japanese MotoGP is proudly brought to you by the number nine.

That is how many different ways the brilliant Spaniard can clinch this year’s MotoGP world championship.

He arrives at the Motegi circuit with a 75-point lead over his nearest rival, Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa, while Valentino Rossi sits a further three points away.

The first of the late-season flyaway races marks Marquez’s first realistic opportunity to become a two-time MotoGP champion.

Here are the nine different ways:
● Marquez wins the race
● Marquez finishes second or third, ahead of both Pedrosa and Rossi
● Marquez finishes fourth, ahead of Pedrosa and with Rossi finishing third or lower
● Marquez finishes fifth, ahead of Pedrosa with Rossi finishing fourth or lower
● Marquez finishes sixth, ahead of Pedrosa with Rossi finishing fourth or lower
● Marquez finishes seventh, ahead of Pedrosa, with Rossi fifth or lower and Lorenzo not winning the race
● Marquez finishes in positions eight to 11, ahead of Pedrosa, with Rossi no more than three places ahead and with Lorenzo not winning the race
● Marquez finishes in positions 12 to 15, ahead of Pedrosa, with Rossi no more than three places ahead and with Lorenzo not finishing either first or second
● Neither Marquez nor Pedrosa score points, with Rossi finishing 13th or lower and Lorenzo not on the podium

Simply put, if Marquez can finish ahead of both of them, and last-start winner Jorge Lorenzo finishes off the podium, he will be world champion.

The four riders who mathematically can still win the MotoGP championship.

But, as his last two races have shown, winning a world championship is not that simple.

After a start to the season where an utterly dominant Marquez seemingly racked up 10-straight race wins as he pleased, he now looks strangely fallible.

He crashed one month ago at Misano, trying to extract more from his Honda that it was willing to give in his pursuit of eventual winner Rossi. Then a fortnight ago at Aragon he gambled on staying on slick tyres despite increasing rain.

As he put it himself afterwards, “I bet on red but it turned up black!”

The luxury of the points cushion he has over his arrivals has allowed him to take those kinds of chances, but Marquez says he left that mentality in the gravel at Aragon.

“Aragon was a difficult situation and we learnt a valuable lesson,” he said.

“However, we were lucky that we didn’t lose points to our rivals and now I know that in Japan it’s my first chance to take the Championship. I will try not to think about it too much — even if I know it would be great to achieve this on Honda’s home soil.”

Standing in his way will be the resurgent Yamaha squad, who took their first two wins of the season on the hop in Misano and Aragon.

Although Honda owns the Motegi circuit, SPEED’s two-wheel experts Kevin Magee and Chris Vermeulen both identified it as a venue where the Yamahas should be able to take the fight to the Repsol bikes.

Indeed, Lorenzo took a stunning victory there over Marquez last year, on a race weekend shortened by foul weather, to keep his world championship hopes alive.

“Last year was my first visit to Motegi on a MotoGP machine and it was a very difficult weekend,” Marquez added. “We hope to have more dry track time this year to find a good setup.

“We will go there and work hard from day one and treat it as a normal race weekend and push for the victory on Sunday.”

And if he does that, Marquez will be victorious in more than just that day’s battle.

He will win the war.

Originally published as Marc Marquez can clinch the MotoGP title in nine different ways at the Japanese Grand Prix