How Marquez can seal the MotoGP crown in Malaysia

While the MotoGP title fight has been a close affair among several riders, a dominant late-season form for Marquez allowed him to open up a gap of 33 points over Dovizioso.

With only 25 points available after Sepang, a first or second-place finish from Marquez would grant him the title regardless of what his rival does.

Finishing third or fourth would still be enough for the Honda rider unless Dovizioso wins at Sepang, the only track he was victorious on last year.

If the Ducati rider is second, he needs Marquez to finish outside of the top four to keep his title hopes alive, which hasn't happened since Mugello.

Should Dovizioso not make it to the top two, his chances of postponing Marquez's coronation until Valencia would decrease significantly, as even an eight-place finish would do for Marquez.

Full title permutations:

Despite being the clear favourite, Marquez claimed on Thursday that his advantage over Dovizioso is still "not enough", and he needs to focus on finishing both remaining races.

"There remain two races, I have a good advantage but not enough," said Marquez. "We’ll try to finish both races, always thinking about the championship.

"One of the main targets is to try to be on the same level, same mentality [as Phillip Island].

"But you feel a little bit different. It’s a special weekend, but on the other hand I have the same motivation and I will try to push at the maximum to prepare well the race.

"Then we will see where we can fight, where we can finish. At the moment strategy is to keep the same level, to push, especially because this racetrack many riders are very fast."

On his faint title hopes, Dovizioso said: "It’s an important weekend, we have to get the maximum. It’s difficult, but the championship is still open and we have to try everything.

"I want to think about the championship, trying to get the best result, we will see [about] Marc at the other riders."