Top 20 moments of 2014, #12: Marc Marquez takes another title in dominating fashion
Looking back over the top moments of 2014, claiming his second title in dominating fashion was Marc Marquez hitting the #12 spot on our list.
Podium: second place and 2014 champion Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Repsol Media
Smiling, jovial and friendly off-track and a ruthless rider with and an unwaivering appetite for victory on-track, Marc Marquez has firmly cemented himself as the man to beat in the MotoGP World Championship.
Marquez became the youngest ever rider to win consecutive MotoGP championships with the 21-year-old Repsol Honda rider backing up his debut title in 2013 with his second at this year’s Motul Grand Prix of Japan in Honda Racing Corporation’s back yard at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit.
“I am very happy to have sealed this second consecutive World Championship, it is difficult to explain, it’s like a dream, you feel really happy that you have achieved it,” Marquez said reflecting on clinching his second title.
Within just six years since his first season in the 125cc class in 2008, Marquez now boasts a total of four World Championship titles to his name (125cc in 2010, Moto2 in 2012 and MotoGP 2013&’14) 45 victories and 69 podium finishes and winning 13 races in the 2014 championship, he beat Mick Doohan’s previous string of 11 wins in 1997.
His first two seasons in the premier class has seen Marquez build up a reputation as something of a quandary and leaving his peers scratching their heads in confusion at how to beat the young Spaniard from Cervera and his elbow-scraping riding style.
Not immune to the pressure
Despite his fun-loving attitude off track and steely demeanor while competing, pressure isn’t something Marquez is immune to. “Already in preseason the target was the title. The pressure was difficult to manage. People can say ‘it’s easy because he won the first ten races in a row’, but it was not like that. I remember how all of the questions to the other riders would continue to be the same. It would be things like: ‘What do you need to do to beat Marquez?’ and ‘How can you stop Marquez?’ Somehow I was a bit uncomfortable about it,” he said.
With victory in his debut year in the premier class and championship number two just 12 months later, the next question can only be can Marquez go on to match the records of legends like Giacomo Agostini, Doohan or the most successful rider in the modern era, Valentino Rossi?
“Breaking records is important because that means you’re on the right path. It’s another motivation, but in the end the most important is the title,” Marquez added.
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