Marco Bezzecchi
Marc Marquez is currently on one of the most dominant streaks in MotoGP history and is making his dreams come true.
After years of toil following a gruelling accident at the 2020 season-opener, the Spaniard is back at the top of the MotoGP standings by some margin.
Marquez has won 10 races in a row, including sprints, which matches a historic run he went on during the 2014 season.
He has been riding almost in perfect harmony with his Ducati bike, and his dominance shows no signs of ending soon. It looks like he’s toying with his opposition.
A Ducati director ‘finds it hard to say’ that Marquez is their greatest ever rider, despite him potentially producing their most dominant season ever.
After recent improvements, an Aprilia chief sent Marquez a warning and believes that he can be beaten during the second half of the season. Any title battle seems a bit of a stretch, though.
Marc Marquez was pushing his Ducati bike to ‘entertain himself’ at the Czech Grand Prix
Marquez was hailed for his genius after managing a tyre pressure warning excellently at Brno, which turned out to be a false alarm.
Even under the most pressure, he appears calm and assured in his thinking. The 120-point lead he holds over his brother in the standings is daunting.
Especially considering that he has dropped many points with crashes in COTA and Jerez, and hasn’t really had to push himself near his limits that much.
Simon Patterson believes that he was pushing for fun during the Czech Grand Prix, in an effective bid to keep himself awake and error-free.
“He was like forcing himself to do time attacks because he needed to stay concentrated so he was like randomly attacking his own lap times just to not fall off,” he said on The Race’s MotoGP podcast.
“He has so little opposition that he has to entertain himself during races, which doesn’t do a lot for entertaining the rest of us.”
Why Marc Marquez continues to push himself even when he has a clear lead
The main risk Marquez faces on track is when he has a big lead out front and no real reason to push the limits.
Mistakes are most likely to happen when he switches off, which explains why he was keen to push himself at Brno.
It wasn’t about setting records, showing off or trying to embarrass his rivals, but more about making sure that he doesn’t make an unnecessary error.
Neil Hodgson is ‘struggling’ to watch Marquez since he made his move to Ducati, and can see how much his riding style has changed since he left Honda.
It’s a credit to just how diverse his skillset is. To be able to adapt from one bike to another so quickly, and continue to dominate at the age of 32.
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