Marco Bezzecchi
Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez developed a bitter feud while the two titans were at the top, and they have still yet to resolve their grudge over one decade since it started.
Rossi was the icon whom Marquez had to catch when the latter burst onto the MotoGP grid with Honda in 2013. It did not take long for the Italian and Spaniard to lock horns, either, as Marquez immediately established a place among the greats by winning the title as a rookie.
Only in the 2015 MotoGP season would Rossi also finish a campaign in front of Marquez in the riders’ standings between 2013 and 2019. The 2015 season was the odd one out in the Cervera native’s era of dominance, having won the title each year from 2014 to ‘19 bar ‘15.
Even now, Marquez is not interested in resolving his bitter feud with Rossi, unless the seven-time premier class champion also strives to fix the bridges that were burned between them. Marquez has a chance to draw level with Rossi with seven MotoGP titles in the 2025 season.
Valentino Rossi felt Marc Marquez resorted to ‘awful’ tactics in the 2015 Australian Grand Prix
The 2015 MotoGP season played a huge role in Rossi and Marquez’s feud, as the former felt the latter successfully tried to help Jorge Lorenzo and cost him the title. Rossi missed out on what would have been his eighth MotoGP title and 10th world championship by five points.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Valentino Rossi from stats to net worth
In particular, the tension between them exploded at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix as Rossi felt Marquez intentionally held him up. Rossi only got fourth place in the race that Marquez, who was comfortably the fastest rider around Phillip Island that year, won ahead of Lorenzo.
Even eight years later, Rossi still felt like Marquez wanted him “destroyed”, so he resorted to “awful” tactics in the 2015 Australian GP. Rossi firmly believed that Marquez saw the Italian as his target, so the Spaniard wanted to stop him from lifting the 2015 MotoGP riders’ title.
Rossi told The BSMT in 2023: “With Marquez, it was totally different because that wasn’t a sporting rivalry on the circuit anymore. At some point, he decided to make me lose the championship, having someone else win – not even his teammate, it was my teammate.
“[He was] making up excuses, when in reality to him I had to be destroyed. [I was] the myth to destroy, so he could take my place. [It] never happened before that a rider, a champion especially, runs to have someone else win, never happened in professional sport.
“Not even between teammates. Absurd. That was awful, an awful moment because he didn’t give me the chance to play out my challenge with Lorenzo in a stellar year, in a year where I could’ve been 10-times world champion.”
Kicking Marc Marquez in the 2015 Malaysian GP was more costly for Valentino Rossi’s title bid
The events that unfolded at Phillip Island would ultimately boil over to Sepang, where Rossi accused Marquez of trying to help Lorenzo win the 2015 title. Marquez always denied that he had ever tried to help his Spanish compatriot’s title bid, but the tension with Rossi persisted.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Marc Marquez from net worth to girlfriend
How the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix unfolded would also add another layer to what was an already bitter rivalry, as Rossi was penalised for kicking Marquez in Sepang. They tangled at Turn 14 when Rossi stuck out a leg after already looking over his shoulder to spot Marquez.
His penalty for the incident in Malaysia proved far more costly for Rossi’s 2015 title bid than what happened with Marquez in Australia. Rossi was hit with a back-of-the-grid penalty for the 2015 Valencia Grand Prix, and charging from P26 to P4 was not enough as Lorenzo won.
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