Marc Marquez: Is MotoGP’s comeback king ready to reclaim his throne?

The 2022 season concluded with Marc Marquez having achieved two milestones. The first was his 100th podium in MotoGP, which he celebrated with a second-place finish at the Australian Grand Prix in October. Given his 99th came in 2021 at the Emilia Romagna GP, where he was still basically riding with one arm, a century of podiums was a longer time coming than anyone would have predicted. But then, nothing that has happened to Marquez over the past three years has been remotely predictable.

Despite a Honda bike that was proving difficult to manage, there was nothing to suggest during the COVID-delayed start to the 2020 season at Jerez that Marquez wouldn’t be adding another premier class title to his haul of six in seven years in MotoGP. The crash four laps from the end of the Spanish GP that resulted in him badly breaking his right arm began a prolonged period of misery for the Spaniard, one that wouldn’t really come to an end until he stood on that podium at Phillip Island.