Tarmac Tormentor

By clinching the World Championship title for the fifth time, Marc Marquez has begun his ascent towards becoming a motorcycle racing legend.

- Rohit Bhardwaj

HE HAS TAKEN the phrase “living dangerously” to a different level altogether. Marc Marquez, with his fearless riding style, claimed his fifth MotoGP World Championship in the last six seasons with three races to spare in Motegi, Japan. He has been able to upturn the phrase “slow and steady wins the race” to “fast and furious always dominate”.

Well, there’s a lot more that goes into the making of the Spanish superstar than meets the eye. The Repsol Honda rider has been clinching podiums with consummate ease. Statistics only prove his dominance on two wheelers. Marquez has won a whopping 44 races, claimed 77 podiums and a massive 52 pole positions out of the 108 races he has participated in since graduating to the MotoGP premier class in 2013. This year too, Marquez claimed nine out of the 18 races—including the Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit—in scintillating fashion.

COMING TO MALAYSIA after crashing out at the Australian GP, Marquez was hoping for a podium finish. With the likes of Maverick Vinales of Movistar Yamaha, Johann Zarco of Monster Yamaha, Alex Rins of Suzuki Ecstar and, of course, Valentino Rossi of Movistar Yamaha pushing hard, there was no dearth of challengers for the Malaysian title. To make things worse, incessant rains and a six-grid penalty for ‘slow driving’ after securing pole position during qualifying made things gloomy for the 25-year-old.

But that only fuelled his desire to win.

The Ant of Cervera, as he is popularly known, zoomed to victory after Rossi crashed on the 16th lap owing to immense pressure heaped on him by Marquez, who secured his ninth win of the season with a timing of 40 minutes 32.372 seconds, ahead of second-placed compatriot Rins (+1.898 sec) and Frenchman Zarco (+2.47 4sec).