Marc Marquez has wrapped up his seventh MotoGP world championship title (and ninth in grand prix racing) with five rounds to spare, an achievement that’s looked inevitable from the first laps of his first season on a factory Ducati.
But how does this achievement compare to his six championships with Honda?
Here’s our worst-to-best ranking of Marquez’s MotoGP titles.
7. 2017
One of two final-round deciders of Marquez's MotoGP career - but though the final margin of 37 points was convincing enough, this still stands as arguably his shakiest title.
Marquez and Honda were rough out of the blocks - so much so that he was apparently losing hair - allowing Maverick Vinales and Yamaha to position themselves as early championship favourites. But Vinales soon settled into the boom-and-bust trend that would define his time with Yamaha.
Andrea Dovizioso and Ducati emerged as the big threat instead. Take Vinales' first five races and Dovizioso's rest-of-campaign and... well, actually, Marquez still wins by six points, but it's true that he would've been uniquely vulnerable to defeat with a more consistent rival.
He was still the best rider on the grid - just maybe not the best version of Marquez.
6. 2018
After a disappointing - but still title-winning - 2017-spec RC213V, Honda gave Marquez something better the following year and he immediately used it to break the title battle, which he then controlled at a distance despite Dovizioso's flashes.
It was easily the least memorable of Marquez's titles, though also included one of his most memorable races - the Argentinian Grand Prix in which he was obviously infinitely faster than everyone else, but had to serve a ride-through for reversing on the grid, then very impolitely rode 'through' both Aleix Espargaro and Valentino Rossi, prompting the latter to launch a veritable onslaught in the media post-race.
That was very early in the season, and it promised to be a major flashpoint if a title battle ever materialised - but there would be nothing of the sort.
5. 2016
The preceding year had been a catastrophe and an embarrassment or Honda and Marquez - even if you forget about the insane end to the season (relive all of that in 2015 Revisited with us on Patreon) - but it clearly settled Marquez, who became a lot more of a card counter and in doing so stole a march on the factory Yamaha riders, both of whom were fundamentally limited in some way.
In a season marking the introduction of new Michelin rubber (made harder in-season) and control electronics, Marquez obliterated team-mate Dani Pedrosa but wasn't conclusively the fastest overall - with Jorge Lorenzo leading more laps, and even spending more laps in the top three.
But Lorenzo couldn't always make the rubber work for him, particularly not the wet rubber, so could only dream of scoring like Marquez was.
Rossi was more robust, and should've been more in the game but for a Mugello engine failure. Wrapping up the title with three to go at Motegi maybe flattered Marquez a little. But, on a day both Rossi and Lorenzo crashed unforced to make it possible, it felt silly but fitting given Marquez had emerged as the series' most dependable rider.
4. 2025
It really seems very simple in hindsight - take the best rider in MotoGP, give him the best bike, and you get a September coronation as a result.
Marquez hasn't been perfect - how can you be, really, in a season of 44 starts and when you ride the way he does - but from the initial 'uh-oh' of pre-season testing to the title-clinching at Motegi in September there was no moment in which a title battle looked particularly believable.
The Desmosedici (whatever spec of the Desmosedici is besides the point) remains the best bike on the grid. But it's funny that just as its grip at the top of MotoGP appeared to be loosening for the first time in a long time, Marquez didn't just steady the ship - but reeled off a mind-boggling 15 consecutive race wins.
A reminder that he is not just elite, but MotoGP's ultimate difference-maker.
3. 2013
There’s a degree of having to pick fault in the incredible at the top end of this list to separate the multiple contenders for first place.
But while the sheer record-breaking ridiculousness of winning the MotoGP title at the first attempt at the age of 20 is undeniably one of the greatest achievements in motorcycle racing history, there were times in the middle of 2013 when it felt Marquez wasn’t actually facing the toughest opposition.
He only moved decisively into the championship lead when main rivals Pedrosa and Lorenzo were both injured. Though they were only sidelined for one race, the effects inevitably lingered and it was in this period that Marquez reeled off the four consecutive wins that pulled him 44 points clear of Lorenzo.
Lorenzo hacking that gap down to just four points by the end perhaps implied that Marquez owed this title to rivals’ injuries. And his rookie season certainly featured plenty of crashes and clashes that could’ve been more costly if either Lorenzo or Pedrosa had a smoother year.
That’s why Marquez’s most attention-grabbing title isn’t actually his best. But for all the caveats, he still walked into Rossi, Lorenzo and Pedrosa’s town at the height of their ‘alien’ reputations, as a 20-year-old MotoGP beginner, took nine poles from 18 races and beat them all to the championship. That over-rides any asterisks.
2. 2014
There were no asterisks over the first half of 2014. Despite missing most of pre-season testing after breaking his leg in a training accident, Marquez stomped all over the opposition with 10 straight victories to start his second season.
Some of the wins were easy, several were extremely hard-fought, one was in a completely ridiculous wet-dry race where most of the grid started from the pitlane (Germany). It all gave the impression that whatever rivals or the universe threw at Marquez, he was basically unstoppable and probably would be for years to come.
Things got shaky once he did start losing, and that meant it still took until round 15 of 18 for him to clinch a title that had looked inevitable since about round three. Marquez admitted the pressure of being expected to win each time actually started to weigh on him.
The sheer statistics of the season were crushing for everyone else, though. Even with those late-season errors, Marquez still won 13 races in a year no one else won more than twice, and took 13 poles when no one else managed more than one.
Still the little wobbles plus Honda being the best bike on the grid that year means 2014 doesn’t quite take our top spot.
1. 2019
It was so, so tempting to put 2014 at the top here - because who wins 10 races in a row to start their sophomore season?!
But 2019 cannot be beaten for the sheer one-man-army value of it, for the immediate and relentless suffocation of a title battle that MotoGP's bike performance trends suggested should have been there but reality showed no sign of.
Dovizioso, destined to be runner-up again, won the Qatar opener but seemed to know already there that a mere 0.023s victory margin over Marquez at one of his worst tracks was a bad, bad omen.
He was right. Save for a blunder out of the lead at COTA, the only blemish on an otherwise-absurd campaign, Marquez would be first and second every time. He never spent a race lap outside of the top five, scored all but six of Honda's constructors' points and brushed off the addition of three-time champion Lorenzo into his team like it was the world's lightest mosquito.
Another rider could've won the title on the '14 Honda. Another rider could've won the title on the '25 Ducati. It is not clear that another rider could've won it on the '19 Honda - and clearly nobody else would've dreamed of doing it by an absurd 151 points.
