MotoGP champion Marquez's head 'became crazy' after title news

The Honda rider started the race an outside chance to win the title, but even a race win at Motegi needed to be accompanied by Valentino Rossi finishing outside of the points and Jorge Lorenzo off the podium.

Marquez was sandwiched between the Yamaha pair early, but made his way past Lorenzo on lap four, three laps before Rossi crashed out, while Lorenzo fell from second place five laps from home.

In control at the front, Marquez said that getting the pitboard message that Lorenzo was out threw him, before recomposing himself to lead home Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso and seal the crown with three races to spare.

"When I saw 'Lorenzo out', I forgot everything," he said.

"I missed a gear three, four, five times in the lap. I didn't know which circuit I was at.

"I did one corner in third gear that normally was first gear, one corner in fifth that normally was fourth.

"That lap, you can see on the lap times, I was one-and-a-half or two seconds slower.

"Then I said, 'OK, Dovi's coming', so we need to keep pushing because otherwise we will wait [to win the title] until after."

Before Lorenzo crashed at Turn 9, Marquez had been doing the mental maths on how he could win the title in next Sunday's Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island.

"I felt normal [today]. Everything I did the same," he said.

"Jose, my friend, said, 'if something happens, we will be in Turn 3 [to celebrate]'. I said, 'hey forget this, we will see in Australia'.

"When there remained five laps, six laps, I started to think, 'in Australia I need to finish seventh or eighth to be world champion', but then when I saw Lorenzo out, everything became crazy in my head."

Marquez had broadly dismissed the notion that he could seal the championship at the circuit Honda owns, given the slim chance of both Yamaha riders striking trouble.

However, he feels that taking the lead and pulling away from Rossi in the extra two laps he spent behind Lorenzo was a factor in the Italian's error at Turn 10.

"It's really strange," he said.

"For that reason, on Thursday I said it felt impossible to win the championship here.

"It's difficult to think both riders will make a mistake in the race. Jorge, I don't know, but maybe Valentino was trying to catch me.

"I was pushing, but in the end Valentino did the correct strategy.

"If he wanted to have a small chance, it's like me last year, if you want to have a small chance to win the title, he needed to win races, so he was pushing at the limit."