Marc Marquez responds to Valentino Rossi’s rival list: “We never fought for a championship”

Marc Marquez brushed off being absent from Valentino Rossi’s list of his biggest MotoGP rivals.

Speaking at VR46’s Mandalika livery launch earlier this week, Rossi named Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo, Max Biaggi and Dani Pedrosa as his biggest rivals, choosing Lorenzo as “maybe” the strongest due to their years together as Yamaha team-mates.

“It was not just a rivalry - it was like a love story,” Rossi said.

Eyebrows were raised that Rossi didn’t include Marquez, who raced against Rossi from his MotoGP debut in 2013 until The Doctor’s retirement at the end of 2021.

But the pair have been estranged since a bitter falling out during 2015, the only season in which Rossi defeated Marquez but lost the title, at the final round, to team-mate Lorenzo.

Marquez has now matched Rossi’s seven career premier-class titles by securing this year’s crown in his debut year for Ducati Lenovo.

Asked about his omission from Rossi’s list, on Thursday in Mandalika, Marquez replied: “Because we never fought for a championship.”

Clarifying that he wasn’t referring to winning six of his titles when Rossi was on track, while Rossi didn’t win any titles against Marquez, the Spaniard added:

“No, no, no, not in that way…. It's just that when I arrived, my biggest opponent, for example, one year was Lorenzo. And then jumped to Dovizioso.”

Marc Marquez vs Valentino Rossi in MotoGP: Season by Season

• 2013: Marc Marquez 1st, Valentino Rossi 4th
• 2014: Marc Marquez 1st, Valentino Rossi 2nd
• 2015: Valentino Rossi 2nd, Marc Marquez 3rd
• 2016: Marc Marquez 1st, Valentino Rossi 2nd
• 2017: Marc Marquez 1st, Valentino Rossi 5th
• 2018: Marc Marquez 1st, Valentino Rossi 3rd
• 2019: Marc Marquez 1st, Valentino Rossi 7th
• 2020: Valentino Rossi 15th, Marc Marquez N/A
• 2021: Marc Marquez 7th, Valentino Rossi 18th

Marc Marquez “Already working on 2026”

Marquez’s dominance this season, six years after his last title, means he can spend the remaining five rounds with one eye on 2026.

“Yeah, this weekend we start already the work for 2026,” he said. “We need to retry some things, try to play a bit with the set-up, try to play with the different things that are available and try to start to work for 2026.”

With 11 Grand Prix wins so far, Marquez has the chance to beat his 2014 record of 13 in a season but insisted he won’t be putting any extra pressure on himself.

“A long time ago I was winning and there remained some races, it was like I wanted to arrive to the next one, attack and win everything,” he reflected.

“But right now it's like I suffered such a lot of pressure during all the seasons that I just want to enjoy it.

“Let's see, the first target is try not to do stupid mistakes because when you achieve your main target, the adrenaline comes down and then sometimes you don't have the same concentration.”

However, he agreed that 13 Grand Prix wins are within reach.

“Now I'm on eleven? Yeah, we can, because I think about Phillip Island and Valencia!” he said.

“Those two circuits [are good for me] but let's see because Mandalika, Malaysia and Portimao are not the best ones on the calendar for me, but I can defend.

“But as I said, I don’t want to put pressure on myself.”

"How different was Misano Pecco and Motegi Pecco?"

Apart from Marquez’s title glory, the big talking point from Motegi was the resurgence of team-mate Francesco Bagnaia, who stormed to a double victory by leading every lap of the Sprint and Grand Prix on a revised GP25.

The Italian cited bike changes made at the Misano test, but Marquez suggested qualifying also played a major role, contrasting Bagnaia’s weekend with that of his brother, Alex Marquez.

“If I have the chance to fight, I will try. But as we see, it's quite difficult with these bikes to fight a lot,” Marquez said.

“As we've seen in Motegi, for example, Pecco won. But how different was Misano Pecco and Motegi Pecco? In the end, his performance was the same, the bike more or less similar. But he started first or he started in the middle of the group.

“Or Alex, for example. The difference between Catalunya Alex and Motegi Alex. The difference was he started on pole or he started in the middle of the group.

“It's super difficult to overtake with these bikes. And yeah, we will try to fight, but you cannot do more than six, seven overtakes in a race.”

Gresini rider Alex holds a 66 point advantage for second in the standings over Bagnaia heading into this weekend.