• Chronicle.Marc Márquez agiganta his legend: sixth MotoGP title in seven years
  • Profile.Marc Márquez, the champion who never changes anything

With four advance races and two steps above the rest, Marc Márquez has proclaimed himself world champion for the eighth time. The sixth in MotoGP, the fourth in a row. At every step, the youngest to break down a barrier. With 26 years, already in the wake of Giacomo Agostini (8) and Valentino Rossi (7) in the queen category. Undisputed champion and budding legend. Nobody dances on the edge with that ease. Never before managed to tame that instinct like now. He was never so superior to his rivals.

Márquez has been first or second in all the races he has finished. And of his nine victories, eight were on the run from the start, pointing to a change, perhaps the years, in his way of facing the races. The Catalan rider, who always rolled at all or nothing, has changed his strategy to shore up his domain. "Three or four years ago my mentality was that: either I won or I went to the ground. In 2015 I lost the World Cup because of that: I won six races, but in another six I ended up far behind. I keep looking for the limits, but I no longer I do every lap, "he confessed recently at Square Mile .

"If I had to go to the ground 25 times to win the title, I was leaving." It could be expensive as in 2014, the year of the 13 victories, including the full in the first 10 races, or could cross as in 2015. That crown is the only one that has escaped since it debuted in MotoGP. He learned the lesson as he learned from this year's stumbling block in Austin, where he went to the ground for continuing to risk when he had already sentenced. It is the only race that has not finished this season. And there was also something about the suffocation of his second World Cup, of course. "In 2014 I was in a hurry and I fell in Misano and in Aragon," he recalled a few days ago. Two consecutive nulls that made him wait until the last day in Valencia.

Open gap

Marquez has varied the plan: instead of throwing and throwing like in Argentina, where he won with almost ten seconds of advantage, or as he tried in Austin, now he tries to open the gap in the lead as soon as possible and keep it until the end. "If you throw from the beginning you avoid being followed, that they can see where you're going." And so it was in Jerez, Le Mans, Montmeló, Sachsenring, Brno and in Alcañiz, where he crossed the finish line pretending to fish.

By the way he avoided the final squeezes, the only weak point of an intractable champion. Of the six races that were solved for less than a second, he only won in Misano and Thailand . In Losail he lost to Andrea Dovizioso for 23 thousandths of a second and in Silverstone against Álex Rins for only 13. In both, as in Austria, he was overtaken by the inside in the last corner. "He is smarter than in his early years, but if you provoke him he still turns on," said the Italian, who has been more closely able to follow his trail. If they are close to more than 100 points.

Because unlike his first years at MotoGP, where he had raw duels with Jorge Lorenzo or Valentino Rossi, there was no one to disturb Márquez. Dovizioso always suffers some misfortune, such as the scare of Silverstone or the fall in Catalonia, although in normal conditions he did not approach that of Cervera; Lorenzo left Yamaha in 2016, suffered in Ducati and has failed to tame the Honda, although his back problems weigh more. Rossi has been filmed over the years, Maverick Viñales has slowed and Quartararo and Jack Miller are still waiting for an official motorcycle.

Change of actitud

Although the difference, of course, also starts at home. From that Honda that fits so well to his growth as a driver, through maturity, which is not only reflected in the race but in his behavior: this season, except for the small friction of any driver, Márquez was left in trouble. Nothing like his old encounters with Rossi or Lorenzo, many times (Argentina 2018, for example) for that aggressive style, because he did not always dance so well on the limits.

Marc Márquez maintains his seal, that determination to reach limits that very few dare to look for. But now that he has learned that even the risk has its moment , it is when it has been more superior to the rest.

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