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Images: 2015 Motegi MotoGP

Photos from round 15 of the 2015 MotoGP World Championship

October 13, 2014

The Doctor is in. Well, almost. VR46 qualified second at Motegi and finished third. Not bad for a 35 year old.

Movistar Yamaha riders team up on Honda's Marc Marquez during the post-race celebration. It's all fun and games until someone gets champagne in their eyes.

You may have not noticed, but there is actually a motorcycle in this photo.

Lorenzo has looked good as ever in the last two races and says that, "now the bike is very competitive." Better late than never, right? There are three races left in the 2015 season.

Marquez celebrated his second MotoGP title in as many attempts with a gold-finished helmet and massive smile.

Dani Pedrosa qualified third at Motegi but dropped to fourth in the race.

To the victor go the spoils, and soiled leathers. Marquez and team celebrate in parc fermé.

After the race, the 35-year-old Rossi said, "I feel good, I feel good on the bike."

Lorenzo suggested afterword that the race wasn't as easy as it looked. "I didn’t expect to go away by two seconds, 2.7 was a lot. But in the last laps they were really fast, Valentino and Marc they were really pushing."

If you were just crowned World Champion, you too would be smiling that big.

Marquez left Motegi with 82 point advantage over Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa, who are tied for second in the standings with 230 points. For Marquez, the gap was enough to finally clinch the championship.

Celebratory burnouts, Marc Marquez style.

Pedrosa finished three seconds behind race winner Jorge Lorenzo.

Scott Redding finished 16th, his worst finish of the year.

After the race, Marquez said that, "I was riding a little bit more stiff, I was not riding like always, but that is normal, I’m human, you know."

Dani Pedrosa had a rough qualifying session at Motegi and ended up on the ground. "I had a little chatter in that corner in the previous laps. I was pushing very hard in the last laps and didn’t care so much about the chatter so that happened."

Andrea Iannone got a great start, but would ultimately stay where he qualified and finished in sixth place.

There have been worse days for the Ducati MotoGP team. At Motegi, Andrea Dovisioso grabbed the first pole position for Ducati since 2010 with Casey Stoner.

Andrea Dovizioso hung onto the back of Lorenzo and Rossi until lap eight, when Marquez went past to take over third.

The MotoGP circus has come and gone from Motegi, leaving race fans in Japan with nothing but memories and lots of confetti to sift through. On Sunday, Marc Marquez took home his second straight World Championship, and Jorge Lorenzo his second straight race victory, something the two would celebrate with similar amounts of pleasure following a race that Valentino Rossi described as “high, high level.” The Doctor finished third.

From the race and post-race celebration, of course, comes an onslaught of photos. You can check out some of the top picks from the weekend above.