The feud between two MotoGP modern greats

The feud between two MotoGP modern greats in the form of Rossi and Marquez goes back a long time and to be precise from the year 2015. It has now become the tipping point in the rivalry between the two legends. It is no wonder that there is bad blood between the two since the season of 2015 with Rossi believing that it was deliberate attempt of Marquez that gave his teammate Lorenzo the unfair title in that season. Ever since that season onwards the rivalry between the two have never really ceased although it may not be too much presumptuous to say that Rossi has been the one who has held on to the grudge much more. The rivalry between the two do not seem to have calmed down although Marquez clearly has been much more cordial.

As mentioned before Rossi believed that in 2015 Marquez was actually helping Rossi’s the then teammate Lorenzo. Well as bizarre as it may sound it was repeatedly stated by Rossi that Marquez who was in team Honda at that time was actually directly pushing for Lorenzo to have an advantage over Rossi. It all started from the press conference in that year 2015 and from there on the relationship between Rossi and Marquez has been much more than the professional rivalry. It is something one must factor in while the discussion in terms of rivalry between Rossi and Marquez comes up. There seemed to be a kind of hiatus in 2018 after the unfortunate demise of Salom in 2018 at the Catalan Grand Prix. However, from then onwards it all went back to square one with the crash happening between the two at the Argentine grand prix.

The only thing to consider here is that after 2018 Rossi had become much more stubborn in his demeanour towards Marquez and his personal vendetta agenda against him. Infact the rivalry between the two had been to such an extreme event that it was apparently believed that Rossi actually stopped the transfer of Marquez’s younger brother to Yamaha satelite team Petronas in 2020 that had also the option of him being able to join MotoGP. Although iater it did not matter as Alex the younger sibling of Marquez later got a contract to join Repsol-Honda. Now to summarize this this rivalry between the fiery Italian Rossi and Spaniard Marquez had been one of the defining chapters of MotoGP.

Infact Rossi had clearly stated that Rossi finds it impossible to forgive Marquez. Even so when Marquez was trying to come back from injury and several surgeries in the recent times of 2020 season and when Rossi was asked about it. He replied “This needs to be “This needs a diplomatic answer. I’m very sorry he can’t race. If he recovers fully which at the moment nobody knows if he will, not even him he will be back as strong as he was. But Marquez is not the strongest rival I’ve had.” This sums the relationship Rossi feels about his bête-noire atleast not as per Rossi’s belief of MotoGP records but how he feels about Marquez as another fellow MotoGP rider and competitor.