(Cervera, Lleida; 32 years) returns one more year to one of the most special circuits of the calendar, again on the noise of the MotoGP wave five years later. If the Jerez-Angel Nieto circuit and its traca atmosphere, unique as few for the heat of its fans and the branch of the stands in grandson and hairdresser, it is already an amalgam of emotions for local pilots, for the eight times world champion is even more.
with the breakage of the humerus that required four surgeries and sank him in the darkest period of his until then brilliant trajectory. Here he recovered the smile and the best sensations on top of a motorcycle last year, when he signed his first podium after giving up his family in Honda – also the best grid contract and the official pilot status – for getting a seat in the Ducati and catapulting again towards the fight for the world title. “That podium was very important, it was the first weekend that I felt competitive. I knew, or sensed, that from that race, that trust had to grow,” explains the Catalan pilot, who is today the World Cup leader after taking seven of the eight disputed tests (four sprint and three Sunday races).
Although he had an old desmosedici, Márquez fought in Jerez last year to you with the tricampeón to demonstrate himself that he could be where he is now, at all. And although he did not cross the goal first, he danced on the podium, he unleashed with his own. He celebrated that second position as if he were one of his greatest victories. And it was. That result and the following that would come allowed him to convince the factory gerifals that marks the passage in MotoGP that his order to keep the most coveted seat of the grill was serious. And thus he beat the motorcycle at the last moment to the world champion, Jorge Martín.
Although he has dominated at pleasure at this beginning of the contest at his premiere with the official red of the Italian brand, with an impeccable management of the strategy and a certain margin to even squeeze his new machine, Márquez does not believe he is better than that kid who swept into 2019 to take his sixth title in the queen category with 12 victories and 19 possible 20 podiums, where only one fall in Austin avoided the full Precisely in the GP of the Americas stumbled again this year, when the sensations are very similar within the Paddock now that this 2025 Spain GP arrives.
“I am not better than the Marc of 2019, I am different. I can not be a better pilot after four operations in the right arm., More experience, and that makes me see things differently,” says 93, which reaches the fifth appointment of the course with 17 points of advantage over his brother Álex, who has just turned 29, and 26 with respect to Bagnaia, his garage partner and rival theoretical for the title. He scares that members of his environment underline who have not even pushed 100% with the Ducati despite having taken all the victories with the exception of the fall, which occurred when he led alone in Texas.
The experience that has transformed Marc is his black journey in the physical section, having felt to the edge of the precipice, of the withdrawal. “It is not the 32 tacos, it is the four years of injuries that make me value the moment I am living. I am enjoying it more than when I was 20 years old, because winning is not normal,” he says. “Before it was only worth winning, or that felt internally. Although there is now the same pressure, I do not feel obliged in debt with myself,” he finishes.
The physical footprint, a scar that crosses its right arm from top to bottom, remains intact. The mental footprint, thanks to its excellent professional and personal moment, begins to dilute. “Right now I’m starting to forget the arm,” he says. To achieve this, Márquez has not only had to get on the best motorcycle, he has also had to take another twist to his physical preparation.
His new routine in the pioneer Madrid center MSI Bio Performance, where European astronauts are also trained, optimizes their preparation and recovery after each weekend of competition. All this under the supervision of physiologist Emiliano Ventura and the care of his physical trainer since 2023, Josué Tarí. The 93 agent, Jimmy Martínez, equates Márquez’s work ethics with Cristiano’s and Messi’s natural talent adds to this. It is a lethal combination that has the rest of the grill again wondering how to overcome it. There is no answer for now.
Three victories in Jerez
Another problem for all persecutors is that 93 does not want to relax or the least. He already made acknowledgment of the “handsome touch” in Austin and, as they point out since their environment, recognizes with less forceful words that he has not yet found the limits of the best motorcycle of the grill. “We must continue polishing the weak points,” he says in reference to the right -wing curves, which have been most historically crossed.
More mature and quiet than ever, but with the speed and mordant on intact track, it has no modesty to refer to that fateful Spain GP of a five years ago, which qualifies as the greatest error of your career. “Here, in 2020, my level was amazing. My feeling at that time, at the physical level and with the motorcycle, it was incredible. It is not that I feel better or worse, but different. I am fast, but it is still difficult to understand where the limit is, I continue to discover it every day,” he concludes. Only the enormous expectations play against them at this point, and that is that nobody expects anything other than a victory of yours in a layout where you have already won three times, the same ones that chain here.
