2018 FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON REVIEW
P144
MotoGP
T
he year started with one big question: who
could beat Marc Marquez? It was an-
swered with three races to spare. Nobody.
Older, faster, the one-time youngest-ever
champion took a fifth title in six years. But he
never made it look easy. That's not his style.
Flirting on the edge of disaster, accomplish-
ing one knife-edge save after another, crashing
23 times—his way of finding the limit in practice,
Marquez stretched the laws of physics beyond
his rivals.
Did he need to take so many risks? Particu-
larly given what was revealed at year's end, that
his left shoulder has been so often dislocated
that even a friendly hug from Scott Redding
made it pop out again at Motegi? A proper crash
at Valencia did so again.
But the 25-year-old knows no other way. He
had 25 recorded falls, two more than any other
MotoGP rider during 2018.
FOR THE FIFTH
TIME IN SIXTH
YEARS, MARC
MARQUEZ LAID
WASTE TO THE
WORLD'S BEST
RIDERS IN THE
MOTOGP WORLD
CHAMPIONSHIP.
THIS IS THE
STORY OF HOW
HE DID IT.
THE
MERCILESS
STRIKES
AGAIN
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
Marc Marquez
unlocked the secret
to almost unbeatable
speed in 2018 and
used it to good effect,
making mistakes in
the practice sessions
but rarely in the race.
A seventh world title
was just reward.
