Marc Marquez

A world champion in 125 and the Moto2 class, Marc Marquez literally came, saw and conquered during his debut 2013 season in MotoGP.

While few doubted that Marquez was always destined to be a potential champion at MotoGP level, few expected him to have flattened the learning curve so comprehensively.

The 20-year-old came out with all guns blazing - a podium on his Qatar debut followed by victory from pole in only his second race. Rather than the predicted rookie errors, Marquez continued to rack up podium-after-podium, with the exception of a late slip at Mugello.

When chief championship rivals Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa suffered mid-season shoulder injuries, Marquez inflicted the maximum title damage with four successive wins. By the time Lorenzo and Pedrosa were back to full strength, the hard-riding Marquez had already matured into a rounded title challenger.

While Lorenzo threw everything at Marquez on and off track during the final events, not even disqualification in Australia - or the earlier controversy caused by the Aragon incident with team-mate Pedrosa - could stop Marquez becoming MotoGP’s youngest champion and the first rookie winner since 1978.

Marquez's 2014 preparations suffered a setback with a broken leg in a dirt track training accident, causing him to miss two of the three pre-season tests, handing his rivals some hope...

It wasn't to last: Marquez began the season with a perfect run of ten straight wins to shatter any title opposition. The young Spaniard also comfortably beat his fellow RC213V riders, ending the year with a record 13 wins compared with just one victory for team-mate Dani Pedrosa, who was fourth in the standings.

Marquez won in the dry, in the wet (Assen), by leading every lap (Austin, Jerez), by fighting back from tenth (Le Mans) and by triumphing in close last-lap battles (Losail, Mugello and Catalunya). However Marquez also threw away two further wins when he fell while leading at Aragon and Phillip Island. Another race mistake occurred early at Misano, when Marquez lowsided while chasing leader Valentino Rossi.

But that was nothing compared with what 2015 had in store for the Honda rider who would endure less wins, podiums, poles, fastest laps and points than either of his previous seasons and be left without a world title for the first time since 2011.

A first corner mistake at the Qatar season opener would later be followed by a string of DNFs as Marquez battled rear wheel slides on corner entry, plus aggressive power delivery on corner exit with the latest RC213V. Engine character was to blame but the ban on in-season development meant Marquez and Honda spent the rest of the year trying to indirectly fix the issues. A switch to his 2014 chassis at Assen proved a notable turning point, although the race will be remembered for the last turn clash with Rossi.

The Dutch TT was the second of three occasions the pair would collide this season and the only time Marquez emerged on two wheels, although he clearly felt hard done by when Rossi kept the win after cutting the track. The first incident had been in Argentina, while the third would be the infamous Sepang encounter.

But there were also some notable highs, Marquez proving his raw speed with five race wins, the last and most dramatic coming at Phillip Island when he snatched victory from Jorge Lorenzo with just a few corners to go.

Despite that pass, a few days later Rossi accused Marquez of playing with his race pace to try and assist Lorenzo, plus other verbal jabs. That set the scene for their Malaysian showdown, which left Marquez on the ground and Rossi starting last in Valencia.

Marquez flatly denies that he conspired against Rossi in the closing rounds of the season, but the uproar left the young Spaniard at the centre of a whirlwind throughout the winter and still on the receiving end of boos when the 2016 season got underway.

Marquez captured his third MotoGP title in 2016 as he more than compensated for Honda's early season technical struggles with a new 'settle for a podium' strategy. It proved devastatingly effective in a season that saw a record number of falls, as riders and engineers found the limits of the unfamiliar Michelin tyres and new single ECU. That's not to say Marquez wasn't pushing. He had to. The Spaniard felt the aggressive Honda was only the fourth best bike for acceleration and had to claw back the lost time - and more - in braking.

“For me, if we make a ranking in acceleration it would be: Ducati, Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda," Marquez said at Le Mans in May. “The problem is that we are losing a lot. But if we improve the acceleration we have one of the best bikes. It’s hard because on the straight time is ‘free’. It is really difficult for your mentality when you see you cannot follow the others. "You need to recover on the brake points and riding like that for 28 laps it is easy to make a mistake."

The Spaniard fell 17 times during the season (compared with 13 in 2016), but usually found the limit in practice - resulting in some extraordinary saves - and went into the mid-season break as the only rider to score in every race. Indeed, Marquez didn’t suffer a DNF until after the world championship was decided in his favour, with three rounds still to go. The lack of early season mistakes (Marquez fell in France, but remounted) is all the more remarkable given the huge gap between his results and those of the other Honda riders.

The 23-year-old finished on the podium in seven of the opening nine rounds, including three wins. During that same period, the four other Honda riders combined claimed a total of four podiums, with one win. While the RC213V became a more competitive package in the second half of the season, producing dry victories for Dani Pedrosa and Cal Crutchlow, the final championship standings still ended with Marquez as the only Honda rider in the top five. The #93's five victories were also more than any other rider this season.

Having equalled Jorge Lorenzo for premier-class titles, Marquez targeted a fifth MotoGP world title with a more rider-friendly 'big bang' style engine. A low-key start in Qatar was dampened by Marquez crashing out early in Argentina but he fought back in style by retaining his 100% winning record at Circuit of the Americas. But with renewed title threats from Andrea Dovizioso and Maverick Vinales, Marquez had to wait until Sachsenring to taste victory again, another circuit where the Spaniard excels, before following it up with a dramatic win at Brno immediately after.

An engine blow at Silverstone handed the initiative back to Dovizioso but Marquez quickly rediscovered his winning rhythm with back-to-back victories at Misano and Aragon. A win at Phillip Island gained Marquez the upper-hand with two rounds to go and he duly held on to seal the 2017 world title in Valencia with third place as Dovizioso crashed out.

Marquez made a faster start in 2018 with second place to Dovizioso in Qatar before creating chaos in Argentina with aggressive overtaking moves, one which took Valentino Rossi off track, which landed the Repsol Honda rider a 30-second time penalty which relegated him out of the points. Marquez regained composure in impressive style with a trio of victories at COTA, Jerez and Le Mans before enduring a second nightmare race when he tumbled off at Mugello. Marquez's critics began to believe his win-at-all-costs mentality had returned but the Spaniard produced remarkable consistency in 10 out of the following 12 races to seal the 2018 title with three races to spare.

After undergoing extensive shoulder surgery over the winter, Marquez produced a record-breaking 2019 on his way to an eighth world title, and sixth MotoGP crown in the last seven years, with a record points haul of 420.

Marquez went under the surgeon's knife for an operation for the second consecutive winter, this time to mend his other shoulder, in preparation for the Covid delayed 2020 season when he was joined by brother Alex Marquez as his Repsol Honda team-mate. 

But diaster struck at the opening Jerez round when, after carving through the field after an early mishap, Marquez highsided from his Honda and broke his right arm. After undergoing surgery, the Spaniard attempted a miraculous return the followinhg weekend, but was forced to withdraw due to pain and discomfort. 

It would take nine months and two further operations before Marquez, who damaged the first plate in his arm 'while opening a door' then struggled with infection, was finally passed fit enough to return at the 2021 Portimao round.

While Marquez missed the start and finish of the 2021 MotoGP season, the injured Spaniard still managed three wins - a tally beaten by only Fabio Quartararo and Francesco Bagnaia - on a bike that took just a single podium in the hands of all the other Honda riders combined.

Still struggling for strength in his arm and shoulder, Marquez had been no higher than seventh after falling in three of the opening five races of his comeback. But the anti-clockwise Sachsenring track was not only a favourite of Marquez but had just three of the right-handers where he was stuffering most.

The result was Marquez and Honda's first victory since 2019 and the end of Honda's longest premier-class victory drought sinxe 1982, an emotional reward for the past year of setbacks, operations and rehabilitation.

But Marquez's problems weren't just physical but technical, with development made to the Honda in his absence receiving a lukewarm response upon his return and some backtracking followed before a path forward was identified.

The bike remained 'tricky', to put it mildly, the falls list for the season featuring three Honda riders in the top four. A lack of rear grip and some spectacular on-throttle highsides catching out the RCV riders.

Given the chance of re-damaging the troublesome right arm and shoulder whenever he fell, it's no exaggeration to say that Marquez put his body on the line time and time again.

The eight-time world champion suffered 22 accidents during his 14 rounds, the highest ratio of any rider, as he pushed the Honda beyond its limits.

But just as all the sacrifices were paying off - a run of three podiums in four races, including two wins, making Marquez the highest points scorer from Aragon to Misano 2 and within reach of fourth in the world championship - came an enduro training accident and nightmare repeat of his 2011 eye injury.

It was a cruel blow that halted Marquez's season in its tracks and, having needed 4.5 months to recover perfect vision in 2011, he faced a race against time to be present for the start of 2022 pre-season testing on the radically revised Honda.

Marquez typically braved the pain to ride in the pair of pre-season tests, at Sepang and the new Mandalika circuit, but was far from 100% physically or technically for the Qatar opener.

While team-mate Pol Espargaro led much of the race on his way to third, Marquez, rode to a subdued fifth place. All the Honda riders were then thrown a curve ball when a much harder construction rear tyre than used at the test was brought for the inaugural Mandalika race weekend. Worse was to follow for Marquez in the form of a huge warm-up highside that not only put him out of the race but triggered a return of the diplopia.

Fortunately, after missing Argentina, the diplopia recovered more quickly than in the past and Marquez was back on the grid for COTA. The #93 had been more cautious about the potential of the new bike during testing than Espargaro and by now all the Honda riders were starting to struggle. 

Nevertheless, Marquez pulled off his usual COTA magic and, without a technical issue at the start, probably had the pace to claim what would have been the RC213V's only win of the year. Instead, he fought from 24th and last to sixth, the time lost on lap 1 being greater than the final margin to race winner Enea Bastianini.

But it was very much a Marquez, rather than Honda, result and - while he kept it secret - his right arm was also continuing to cause him pain and weakness. Seeking new advice from American doctors, Marquez was told the bone in his arm was misaligned by over 30 degrees but that an operation could correct it.

Given the discomfort, and lack of podium results, Marquez felt he had little choice but to take what was effectively a final roll of the dice and undergo a fourth operation.

Marquez sat out six races while he recovered before a return at Aragon where, although lacking fitness, he felt positive that his arm was now moving more naturally. A dramatic opening lap saw Marquez slide and then be hit from behind by world championship leader Fabio Quartararo before the resulting bike damage caused a collision with Takaaki Nakagami a few turns later.

The final rounds confirmed Marquez as far and away Honda's top rider, despite his physical ordeal, and he took what would be his only podium of the year at Phillip Island, finishing a fraction from race winner Alex Rins.

Marquez will be joined by Rins former Suzuki team-mate and 2020 world champion Joan Mir at Repsol Honda in 2023, when Marquez will expect a big response from Honda after being the only manufacturer without a race win in 2022.