Marc Marquez is a perfect 10…
The 21-year-old Spanish Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and current MotoGP world champion won his 10th MotoGP race in a row at the Indianapolis Grand Prix on Sunday.
Marquez recovered from a bad start to take the lead, gave it right back and then retook the lead for the final 18 laps, beating compatriot Jorge Lorenzo by 1.803 seconds to become the first back-to-back winner in Indianapolis. Italy’s Valentino Rossi finished third.
Though Marquez has been virtually unstoppable this season, with eight poles and 10 wins in 10 races, it appeares as if a couple of early miscues just might put that winning streak in jeopardy. But Marquez wasn’t about to let that happen.
“Every race I go to the weekend and I say, ‘OK, here maybe is the time to finish second or third. Here will be the time that I will struggle,'” Marquez said. “But every race I feel so strong. The most important thing is that I enjoy seeing the podium and the team enjoy every victory like the first one. So it is important to keep the motivation and the concentration, and we will see. But it will be so difficult to win every race.”
With his tenth consecutive win, Marquez equals Mick Doohan‘s 1997 record and continues his dominance in 2014.
But Marquez is quite familiar with breaking records and pursuing milestones since joining the MotoGP last year.
He’s the youngest world champion in history, and he’s now the youngest rider to win 10 straight races, breaking the mark Mike Hailwood set in 1964 when he was 24 years, 86 days old. Marquez is 21 years, 174 days.
And Marquez’s latest win also gave the powerful Spaniards their 500th grand prix victory.
Perhaps this should have been expected, given Marquez’s track record. He’s won all five American races over the past two seasons and has now pulled off a rare feat at one of racing’s most famous venues — four straight race wins. In addition to the 2013 and 2014 Indy GP titles, Marquez also won Indy’s Moto2 races in 2011 and 2012.