The Red Bull Ajo Motorsport rider stretched his lead at the top of the 125cc World Championship standings to 12 points with his ninth victory of the campaign, leading title rivals Pol Espargaró and Nico Terol across the finish line.

Marc Márquez’s ninth win of the season stretched the Red Bull Ajo Motorsport rider’s lead at the top of the 125cc World Championship standings to 12 points on Sunday, as he triumphed from pole position at the Iveco Australian Grand Prix. The 17 year-old also equalled Jorge Martínez’s 1988 record as the Spanish rider with the most wins in the category in a single season as he strengthened his title charge with just two rounds remaining.

Taking the chequered flag 6.062s clear of the rest of the field having opened up an early lead Márquez finished well ahead of title rivals Pol Espargaró and Nico Terol (Bancaja Aspar), who had competed closely for the remaining two podium positions during the race. Espargaró eventually finished just over five seconds clear of Terol however as the Tuenti Racing rider put in a strong final stage of the race.

The Round 15 result leaves Márquez on 272 points at the top of the standings, with Terol now on 260 and Espargaró on 255 with the Estoril and Valencia rounds to go.

In a tight battle for fourth position which required a video finish between Efrén Vázquez and Bradley Smith (Bancaja Aspar) the Tuenti Racing edged his British competitor, with Esteve Rabat (Blusens-STX) close behind in sixth.

Tomoyoshi Koyama (Racing Team Germany), Luis Salom (Stipa-Molenaar Racing), Randy Krummenacher (Stipa-Molenaar Racing) and Danny Webb (Andalucia Cajasol) all secured top-ten finishes.

Unfortunately for Alberto Moncayo (Andalucia Cajasol) his race ended on the opening lap with a crash, whilst front-row starter Sandro Cortese (Avant Mitsubishi Ajo) suffered the same fate shortly after. Lorenzo Savadori (Matteoni Racing) and Johann Zarco (WTR San Marino Team) were the other two riders who failed to finish the race.