MOTORSPORTS prodigy Marc Márquez scooped up his fourth world championship in five seasons today (Sunday) at Cheste (Valencia province) in a race where he only had to stay on his bike and finish in the top 11 to clinch the title.
Although practically a certainty, Catalunya-born Márquez, 24, could still have seen the championship slip from his grasp at the eleventh hour if he had come 12th or less and his nearest rival, Italy's Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Desmosedici GP17) had won – and every seat was filled at the circuit today with fans eager to witness the showdown.
Márquez (Repsol Honda) came third, whilst his team-mate and fellow Spaniard Dani Pedrosa netted his seventh Cheste win ahead of second-placed Johann Zarco (Yamaha), a French rider who has burst onto the scene this year with some very impressive results.
Dovizioso suffered a fall, just after the 2015 champion Jorge Lorenzo – who had been given the order by radio to let the Italian pass – and, at one point, during an ongoing head-to-head battle with Zarco, Márquez nearly bit the dust as well, which could have put paid to his world title.
With seven laps left before the end, Márquez overdid the braking and looked certain to come off, but managed to stay on by the skin of his teeth – or rather, his knee, which he stuck out and rammed into the ground.
Márquez, from the town of Cervera in the land-locked province of Lleida, became the youngest-ever rider to win the world championship at MotoGP level in his rookie year in 2013, aged just 20.
He went on to repeat the performance in 2014 and 2016, and has now netted a fourth, having only failed to win it in one season of his career on the top rung of the sport, in 2015, when his compatriot Jorge Lorenzo scooped up his third world championship.
It was not a done deal from the start, however – Spain's Maverick Viñales, a relative newcomer who had yet to make the top five in any race, won twice at the start of the 2017 season, his second at MotoGP level.
And Dovizioso was just 12 points behind Márquez after winning the Malaysian Grand Prix a fortnight ago – had the gap been closed to nine points or fewer, it would have been touch and go for the catalán.
The unstoppable Márquez is now the Spaniard with the most wins in history at MotoGP level, having beaten Jorge Lorenzo, and has entered the exclusive club of MotoGP riders who can boast more than three titles to their name – along with legends such as Eddie Lawson and John Surtees, the latter being the only rider ever to win both the MotoGP and the Formula 1 Grand Prix world championships.
Only three riders in history are still ahead of Márquez – Mike Doohan, who won five championships, Giacomo Agostini, who holds the record at present with eight, and Márquez's fellow competitor Valentino Rossi, with seven – an Italian legend who is still on the circuit and is at once Márquez's childhood hero and his arch enemy following a spat in the final races of the 2015 season.
And with only five seasons under his belt, Márquez's career is just starting – Doohan won his fifth and final championship at the age of 33 and Rossi is still racing at age 38, or 14 years Márquez's senior.
The young Spaniard has been on the podium 36 times in five seasons and has a race victory rate of 40% so far – and, discounting races where he fell off, he has only missed the podium 15 times in 76 races, meaning if he stays on his bike, he has an 82% probability of a top-three place.
Visiting celebrity at Cheste MotoGP today, Matrix and Point Break star Keanu Reeves, told sports newspaper Marca that he felt Márquez fully deserved his fourth world title.
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