In the emotional fight, where the stopwatch does not rule and only everyone knows what happens, the so-called psychological game, Marc Márquez usually wins. Four adversaries have challenged him mentally and the four have ended up sunk, some on the brink of depression. Andrea Dovisioso, Maverick Viñales, Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. All of them were rivals and all of them tried to knock down Márquez with several arguments, from compadreo to belligerence, from confrontation to closeness. None got it. Today none can be considered a fixture on the podium - we are not talking about victories - and, therefore, none is supposed to be a MotoGP World Cup candidate for 2020 when the cards are back on the table.

Márquez has dominated the championship from the depths although this season a young driver has appeared able to rise against it: Fabio Quartararo. Although he still needs maturity to endure entire races, the Frenchman of 20 years has shown with a Yamaha satellite that does not fold before anyone. Several times Márquez has proposed battles to intimidate him and in all of them Quartararo has come out with a smile. Sometimes he won, sometimes he lost, but he always tried again. This Saturday in Sepang Márquez launched his nth offensive to end his innocent bravery and what had to happen happened: the six-time MotoGP champion ended up in the air in the toughest fall of the entire season.

It happened during the classification, already in Q2. Aware that Quartararo was the fastest on the Asian track - as it was already in Jerez, Montmeló, Assen and Thailand -, Márquez got to his wheel to play with him, to try to snatch the pole from rebufo and the game came out of The worst possible way. Although the French stopped several times for the Spaniard to pass him, he always waited and in the first linked, having to advance to Danilo Petrucci who had sneaked between them, his Honda violently expelled him. He flew straight into the air and fell on his own legs. Nothing broke and in principle this Sunday (08.00 hours, DAZN) can run, but it is still in doubt that it does.

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