In his first year riding for the factory Ducati team, Marquez clinched the 2025 title with five rounds to spare.
He beat his brother Alex to the title, putting more than 200 points between himself and the Gresini rider on another Desmosedici GP25.
In the 17 grands prix to date, Marquez has won 11 of them and taken 14 sprint races.
Of those 11 wins, seven were consecutive. Thus far, he has only finished off the grand prix podium twice. More success is surely to come.
The names that most would put Marquez up against are Italy’s greats, Giacomo Agostini and Valentino Rossi.
Agostini won 15 world championships across the 1960s and 1970s. Of those 15, eight were 500cc titles. Agostini won his first title in 1966 and his last in 1975 in an era where he raced in the 500cc and 350cc classes concurrently.
Rossi’s career netted nine world championships, and seven at premier class level in MotoGP. His first MotoGP title was in 2001 and his last in 2009. Only Nicky Hayden (2006) and Casey Stoner (2007) could break the Rossi stranglehold.
Rossi’s career spanned more than 370 starts, and his longevity speaks for itself. However, he wasn’t able to sustain the level needed to beat the likes of Jorge Lorenzo, Stoner, and then Marquez. Rossi raced until the end of 2021, well beyond his prime.
Marquez won his first MotoGP premier class title in 2013 as a rookie, beginning a dynasty with Honda that was only broken once in 2015 by Lorenzo.
Right now, Agostini has the most motorcycle grand prix wins to his name with 122. Rossi is second on 115, and Marquez is third with 99.
Marquez stands above Agostini and Rossi for longevity, winning his latest title more than a decade on from his first. The reality is, unless something dramatic were to happen, there is very little to suggest the Spaniard would stop winning with Ducati next year.
After winning the title at Motegi, the slogan “more than a number” was paraded. That, perhaps, speaks to the context of Marquez’s success.
Just a few years ago, he was on the verge of retirement. After winning his sixth premier class title with Honda in 2019, Marquez began the coronavirus-delayed 2020 season in the worst way possible.
His well-documented crash at Jerez, premature comeback, and several surgeries to mend a busted arm meant he went a year without winning.
He was later diagnosed with a rare eye condition that sidelined him again and meant he was in and out of the saddle.
“It’s hard to find the words to describe the emotions I’m feeling right now,” said Marquez of his seventh MotoGP title.
“After the challenges and the injuries of 2020, I continued to fight and I can now say I’m at peace with myself.
“This has been the biggest challenge for me: since I joined MotoGP, I was straight away very competitive and won a lot, before going from glory to years of hardships marked by injuries, crashes and results that were surely not exciting.
“I never gave up and stayed focused on myself, following my instincts and making important – yet not simple – decisions. This is why this world title is the best way to close the circle.”
Marquez’s insatiable thirst for success was to his detriment initially and ultimately what brought him back to the top.
The numbers say Agostini is the better rider on titles alone and equal with Rossi, but the five-year wait between titles and the heartache to get there is the stuff of legend, worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster.
No rider has gone six seasons between MotoGP titles.
It’s crazy to think what might have been had Marquez not crashed at Jerez in 2020. That day, he fell to last and rode back through the field in arguably the greatest ride of his life, only to suffer that life-changing second crash. If not for that, who knows what the ledger would look like?
With that in mind, we’re asking: Does Marc Marquez’s latest title make him the greatest MotoGP rider of all time? Cast your vote below in this week’s Pirtek Poll.
Discussion about this post