Was Marc Marquez’s Australian MotoGP win his greatest ever?

Last weekend’s Australian MotoGP saw a classic showdown between Marc Marquez and Jorge Martin, and one of the standout wins of the former’s career.

The myth of Marquez’s 88th Grand Prix victory was written on the grid.

An insect met its end on Marquez’s visor on the warm-up lap, but, as Marquez went through the various procedures that make ready a modern MotoGP bike for a race start, he ran himself out of time to remove the tear-off from his visor to clear his vision.

So, he was left with no choice but to remove the tear-off after he’d stopped on the grid.

The tear-off fluttered to the ground and dropped right under the rear tyre of Marquez’s Ducati Desmosedici GP23.

The result was the smokey start that’s been shared around social media countless times by now.

Marquez dropped to 13th, but ultimately recovered to win, passing current points leader Jorge Martin on the penultimate lap to secure his fourth premier class win at Phillip Island, one of the circuits remaining on the MotoGP calendar where the rider, more than the bike, makes the difference to performance.

“I think it was vintage [Marc] Marquez,” said Crash.net’s Lewis Duncan.

“It was kind of the first time we’ve seen the ‘old’ Marquez back in action— okay, there was that dominant win at Aragon, but that was very much kind of circumstantial.

“The start, with the tear-off, [...] he got a big mosquito splattered on his visor and he had no time to get rid of it, and unfortunately the wind blew the tear-off under his rear tyre — we laugh at it but it could’ve been a serious accident.

“[Francesco] Bagnaia came quite close to hitting him, then he was 13th at turn one, and then somehow he ended up in P6 after a couple of corners.

“I think what was the most incredible thing about it, really, was: he’s on this [Desmosedici] GP23 [which has] quite a big difference [compared to the GP24]; yet, somehow, Marquez rode that as if he was on a factory bike.

“Now, everyone’s looking towards next year and thinking ‘What can he actually do on a GP25?’

“I think this is the first weekend we’ve really seen that door open. This is what he can do on a GP23 that is pegged back quite considerably — and has quite a lot of problems naturally anyway, we know it pushes the front quite a lot, the engine braking characteristics of the bike are really different to the GP24.

“Just what can he do next year? That should be kind of a bit concerning for everyone next year, not least [Francesco] Bagnaia.”

Crash.net’s MotoGP Editor Peter McLaren added that this was yet another win that reflective of Marquez’s characteristics as a rider: “It was a ‘Marquez’ win, wasn’t it? That is maybe the only thing to observe: they’ve all been ‘Marquez’ wins this year, haven’t they?

“Dodgy [asphalt], a bit of rain in Misano, and now a real rider’s track and he makes this massive difference.

“That was [Marc] Marquez making the difference, wasn’t it? It wasn’t the GP23 that won on Sunday, it was Marc.

“That’s a big tick for him in that box that he wanted ticked at the start of the year, of ‘Do I still have it?’

“What we’re seeing is that Marc is incredible in situations and tracks where he has been incredible in the past. That should definitely worry people for next year.

“I think, also, over a season, he’s going to want to be up there also at tracks — and we’ve got a couple of them coming up — where he’s traditionally not been great.

“We’ve heard him talk about high grip, and we saw that at the Misano rounds, he drops away a bit there.

“I think he’ll want to see himself, just as the very final piece of the puzzle going into next year, be a lot closer to the top guys in difficult situations, maybe.

“But, other than that, it was a flawless ride and vintage Marquez [at Phillip Island].”