Rain won’t dampen Marquez reign

Valencia: “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain,” say Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering to Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady.

It appears the rain is mostly in Valencia at the time of the MotoGP, the final one of the year at the end of which coronation awaits Marc Marquez, the Roger Federer and Tiger Woods rolled into one, if accounts of his unbelievable exploits are put in an all-time sporting context. And he is only 25 and has won his fifth world championship already and in just six seasons since he graduated into this pinnacle class of motorcycle racing.

The final race is Marquez’ homecoming and the only pity is some rain may fall on his parade. It is a long way to come to the Circuit De La Communitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo, but perfectly worth it considering the Repsol Honda Racing Team set up a conference with the champion himself. He could be just your average neighbourhood youngster in a suburban setting anywhere in the world. Soft-spoken and extremely polite to media questions, he went on to explain in detail of anything to do with his sport.

The story of the Catalan is an amazing saga of precocious gift blossoming into domination of the world in his class of sport. As he pulled out of the pit stop and began his practice runs for qualifying, the reason why he is known as history great daredevil becomes apparent as he dips into the first turn of this bowl circuit. It is his technique of leaning over far more than any of his competitors or even anyone in motorcycle racing that has been written upon and raved about even as his fans and all spectators take in that virtual pirouette with each wheel pointing in a different direction at every turn.

This is the Marquez dance that has defined his sporting ability, besides his competitive instincts that are said to be as sharp as that of an Indian cab driver fighting for the inches on the carriageway of our crowded roads.

The water was spraying off the track as they zipped by one by one over the past two days. The championship was wrapped up by Marquez with three races to go. Even so, he is out there competing and showing his class and sporting ability by topping the time chart on Thursday and into the formal qualifying of Friday.

The 2018 MotoGP season has been one of intense contests between Andrea Dovizioso and Marquez with the Ducati rider in early leads in the last three races until Marquez passed him and held the Italian off.

Next season Jorge Lorenzo of Ducati and Marquez will be team mates at Honda, which is like Tendulkar and Richards playing for the same team.

With a third title in a row and fifth in all, Marquez is in a class of his own, drawing comparisons on the all-time scale to Valentino Rossi. History will soon enough judge whether Marquez is the greatest of them all.

The tunnel-visioned Marquez himself says the forecast is for Sunday — 100% rain says the Met —to be very wet but that “We need to be ready for whatever condition e may find if we wish to fight for the podium.”

The sport also bids goodbye on Sunday to Marquez team mate Dani Pedrosa but Valentino Rossi, the living legend of 23 years on the fastest possible bikes on the premier circuit and whose rivalry with Marquez was the stuff of modern day social media and sport fandom is willing to go on for another season or more, even at the age of 40. He will be in the mix and so there is more than the Marquez celebration to look forward to.