The curious case of Marc Marquez
Marc Marquez had MotoGP immortality within his grasp, but a series of injuries have left the Spaniard somewhat in limbo over the last three seasons and questions remain as to whether he will summit the sport once again.
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When the Honda rider joined the premier class for the 2013 season there was much excitement surrounding the 2012 Moto2 champion but very few would have predicted just how it would turn out.
Marquez, 20 years old at the time, went on to claim six Grand Prix victories in his debut season en route to claiming a maiden MotoGP title at the first time of asking.
He followed that up with arguably the most dominating title defence the sport has ever seen, winning the first 10 races of the 2014 season and going on to claim his second title by a 62-point margin.
There would be no hat-trick of title for Marquez though as the charging Yamaha pair of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi conspired to deny him, with the former picking up the title in 2015.
That ‘loss’ seemed to spur Marquez on as he asserted himself as one of the all-time MotoGP legends by going on to win back to back world championships from 2016-2019.
With six titles to his name, Marc found himself just one behind Valentino Rossi and two behind Giacomo Agostini on the list for most MotoGP titles.
Marquez looked well on his way to becoming the all-time-great but fate would cruelly intervene.
The opening race of the 2020 season could not have ended worse for the Honda rider. Marquez qualified third for the race and spent the majority of the Grand Prix chasing down the leader Fabio Quartararo. With the Frenchman in sight disaster struck for Marc as he was flung from his machine sending him out of the race and ultimately out of the season. After surgery to repair his now fractured humerus, Marquez rushed back to action for the very next race, but that challenge ended before it even really took off and he withdrew from the race as it was too painful to compete.
With the heartache of missing out on the 2020 season Marc set his sights on the 2021 campaign but he was not able to make the first two races. He earned two points-scoring finishes in his first two races back for over a year but then failed to finish the next three. When the chequered flag waved at the end of the German MotoGP Marc picked up his first race victory in over 581 days, his 11th consecutive race victory at the Sachsenring. With the monkey off his back, Marc returned to the top step of the podium two more times before a recurrence of an eye injury ended his campaign two races before the season finale.
The specter of the eye injury hung around Marquez as the 2022 season approached but the six-time world champion would not be denied as he made it to Losail for the season opener.
His performance in Qatar raised more questions than it provided answers, in terms of his fitness and his ability to challenge for titles again. Even more questions were raised at the Indonesian MotoGP.
Marquez was violently thrown from his Honda RC213V, his fourth crash of the practice sessions, which sent him for a trip to the hospital. Although he was cleared for the race further tests revealed that his old eye injury had made a reappearance and ended his participation in Indonesia and also put him out of the Argentinian MotoGP.
The next task for Marquez was the Grand Prix of the Americas, a race that earned him the moniker King of COTA for his six wins in the first seven editions. It was the perfect platform from which to relaunch his 2022 campaign and show that he is still a force to be reckoned with…and boy did he deliver.
A poor qualifying and an even poorer start to the race meant Marquez had his work cut out for him to get anything positive out of the race. A technical issue saw his Honda stall on the line and by the time he got going he was dead last heading into turn 1.
But like any champion, it is in times of adversity when they shine, and shine he did. Marc’s ride was reminiscent of times gone by when there wasn’t a bike on the track that could resist his advances. He scythed through the field but by the time he had gotten to sixth place, the leading pack was too far up the road to make any more progress but the performance left everyone with thoughts of ‘what could have been’ if Marc had gotten off the line well.
The sight of Marquez in full flight passing other riders like they weren’t even there will have filled him, Honda, and their fans with tons of hope and optimism for the rest of the 2022 season.
The next test of Marc’s title credentials will be the Portuguese MotoGP and one can only imagine that nothing short of a podium finish will do f he is to remain in the conversation for the world championship.
BROADCAST DETAILS - Portuguese MotoGP
Saturday, 23 April
Qualifying | SS Variety 2 | 15:05
Sunday, 24 April
Race | SS Action | 13:55
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