MotoGP championship leader Marquez shrugs off Lorenzo contact

The championship's two main protagonists swapped places multiple times over the Malaysian Grand Prix, with Lorenzo at one point tapping the side of Marquez's Honda as he barged through at Turn 11.

Marquez, who was retrospectively handed one penalty point at Sepang following light contact with team-mate Dani Pedrosa at Aragon, said the clash was a simple racing incident.

"In one overtake I felt some contact, but it was OK - this is racing, no?," he said.

"He [Lorenzo] overtook me on the inside, [which] I didn't expect.

"We have some contact but in that moment it was so exciting."

Lorenzo also played down the incident, although he said Marquez's decisive pass at mid-distance had come close to overstepping the mark as his Yamaha had squeezed onto the kerbs, forcing him to back off the throttle.

"Anyway it was fun - until the last overtake," Lorenzo said.

"Until there the fight was really clean with no touching, and in this corner there was no touching but he didn't let me so much space like in the other overtakes, so I had to close the throttle to not [crash].

"It was more or less normal overtaking though because you can see the other rider, so it wasn't dangerous; I just had to close the throttle.

"We fought I think three, four, fives times; I don't remember. Marc was strong, didn't lose concentration and deserved second; third was all we could do."

As a result of finishing second, Marquez now leads Lorenzo by 43 points, meaning he could potentially seal a first MotoGP crown at Phillip Island this weekend.