Come on admit it we had no idea what the next ten years was going to bring. Personally, I just enjoyed commentating on the cracking 2010 125 cc Italian Grand Prix at Mugello with the first four riders covered by less than two tenths of one second after 20 laps around the legendary venue.
When 17 year old Marc Marquez had fought off the challenge of Nico Terol, Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith to win his first grand prix I didn’t prophesy that this was the start of a dynasty that would completely take over the World for the next ten years.
For me it was another young Spanish rider winning his first grand prix. Of course, like many of them before and since Marc was talented and perhaps a future World Champion. Eighty-one more grand prix victories and not one World title but eight, might be a clue I should have taken a little bit more notice.
My memories up till that fateful day where of a young rider with a fearless riding style and attitude that often resulted in some spectacular crashes and plenty of finger wagging from other riders. I remember remarking that perhaps he should be at school rather than standing on the Donington Park podium when he finished third at the British Grand Prix two years earlier after finishing third behind Scott Redding and Mike Di Meglio. It was the first of his 134 podium finishes, although that first grand prix win was still two years away. When it came the floodgates opened in a deluge that grand prix motorcycle racing had never experienced.
Riding the Derbi he won the 125 cc World title the same year and switched to Moto2. In 2012 riding the Suter he added the World title to his collection winning nine races, before joining the elite a year later. Would the teenager win grand prix that year and could he finish in the top three against the likes of Rossi and Co where the questions posed. The answers came back thick and fast. He won just second time out at Austin to become the youngest ever winner of a premier-class grand prix. He went on to become the youngest ever premier-class World Champion in 2013 riding the Repsol Honda. The record books were ripped apart by the teenager from Cervera with the ant emblem on his helmet. Five more premier class World titles thanks to 50 more grand prix victories. Ten successive grands prix wins in 2014 to match his peers Giacomo Agostini and Mick Doohan. That same year he won 13 grands prix. Last year he won 12 races on route to that sixth premier class title amassing a record number of 420 points. Over the last six decades the Sachsenring in Germany has learnt a thing or two about world class riders – Marquez has won there for the last ten years in a row.
Dominating the proceedings, the way he has over the last ten years is obviously down to sheer raw talent. Marquez has that talent in bucket loads, but great World Champions have so much more. He has overcome a number of career threatening injuries. In 2011 he could not complete the Moto2 season with an eye injury that threatened to end his career. Crashes especially while training have broken many bones and it was not a rare sight to see him pop a dislocated shoulder back into place and go on and win the next race. His aggressive style has upset the authorities and he has been penalised by having to start from the back row of the grid, of course going on to win the race.
His biggest off-track triumph was taking on the king of the mind games Valentino Rossi in 2015 and not succumbing the pressure that has destroyed many others.
To say it has been an amazing decade since that day in Mugello is a vast understatement. Where will it all end?. Then there is his younger brother Alex. He has already won the Moto3 and Moto2 World titles and joins Marc as team-mate at Repsol Honda this season. The Marquez dynasty is set to continue for at least another decade.
Must be something in the water of Cervera.
