Marquez set to take off to newer heights after latest feat
With his 10th successive victory on Sunday, Marc Marquez has left the high-octane world of grand prix motorcycling gasping with disbelief and marvelling at the prospect of what he could achieve if he stays healthy over the next 10 years or so.
At the tender age of 21, Marquez has already ripped apart the record books and stamped his authority on a sport that is not for the fainthearted – and that includes not just the daredevils on their mean machines, but also the fans whose galloping pulses often hit life-threatening peaks at every twist and turn during a race.
Having started his racing career at the age of 15, the Honda star is only the fourth rider after Mike Hailwood, Phil Read and Valentino Rossi to win world championship titles in three different categories and the youngest MotoGP champion at the age of 20 last year when he won the crown in his first year as a premier class competitor.
Marquez’s feat on Sunday matched the record of Australian Mick Doohan who also won 10 races in a row 17 years ago, the Spaniard finishing ahead of Yamaha duo Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi in Indianapolis.
Marquez moved into second place with 21 laps to go, with Lorenzo third before the champion snatched the lead with 16 laps remaining.
“Tenths by tenths I opened the gap, and those two seconds were enough in the end of the race for take the victory,” said Marquez who now looks set to wrap up the title with a great deal to spare having collected a perfect 250 points from 10 races with eight legs still remaining.
Marquez’s blazing MotoGP career began in Qatar last year when he secured third place behind Lorenzo and Ross at the Losail International Circuit. But barely a month later, he was hailed as a future great when he became the youngest rider to win a premier class race by outclassing Rossi and Lorenzo at the Grand Prix of the Americas, in Austin, Texas.
From there on there was no looking back as he went on to become only the second driver in history – American Kenny Roberts being the first – to win the world championship in his debut year.
Marquez now looks set to dominate the sport, which badly needed a rising star in the wake of the untimely retirement of Casey Stoner coupled with the waning aura of Rossi, a seven-time premier class world champion who will be 36 when the next season starts.
The baby-faced Spaniard seems destined to go places never travelled before, especially on a set of two wheels that can devour tarmac faster than the 330km per hour speed an F16 fighter jet generates while taking off.
