Marquez on the verge of Agostini’s record: Lorenzo rules Rossi out of the GOAT debate

• With eight world titles in the premier class, Marquez would draw level with Agostini and move one title clear of Rossi
• Lorenzo compares him to Ayrton Senna and Max Verstappen and sees only Marquez and Agostini left in the race for the title of the greatest
• Ducati racing boss Gigi Dall’Igna rates second place in Qatar as highly as a win

Strictly speaking, the 2026 season has not been decided yet. Even so, the paddock is already arguing about where Marc Marquez would stand in the history of the Grand Prix world championship after an eighth title. The Spaniard travels to Portugal with 431 points, Jorge Martin follows on 371. If Marquez wins the Sprint on Saturday, 21 November, he is world champion, no matter what the others do. How good his position is also has to do with his weekend in Qatar, which Ducati now sees as the turning point of the season. The debate about the greatest rider of all time, meanwhile, is being fuelled above all by a former teammate.

Which record can Marc Marquez equal in Portimão?

With the 2026 title, Marquez would have eight world titles in the premier class, exactly as many as Giacomo Agostini. Nobody has ever won more in the top class.

Agostini won his eight titles in the former 500cc class, the forerunner of today’s MotoGP. In total, the Italian even has 15 world titles, as he won seven more in the 350cc class. Back then, riders could still compete in several classes at the same time. That makes a direct comparison with today’s champions, who only race in one class, difficult.

Valentino Rossi stopped at seven titles in the premier class. Counting all classes together, he has nine. With the 2026 title, Marquez would reach ten and would be ahead of Rossi in both ways of counting.

The road there has been unusual. After shoulder surgery in May, Marquez was at one point 102 points behind Marco Bezzecchi. Since then, he has won seven of the last eleven Grands Prix and retook the championship lead in Australia.

Why does Jorge Lorenzo compare Marquez to Ayrton Senna?

For Lorenzo, Marquez is in a league of his own technically, just like Senna and Verstappen in Formula 1. The three-time premier class world champion said so in an interview with GPOne at EICMA in Milan.

In his words: “Marquez is Marquez: he is the Ayrton Senna of motorcycling, the Max Verstappen of MotoGP.”

Lorenzo knows both sides well. He rode for Yamaha for nine years and for Ducati for two, and ended his career in 2019 at Honda, where Marquez was his teammate. In the premier class he won 47 races and the titles in 2010, 2012 and 2015.

What impresses him most about Marquez is his technique. The many injuries have forced the Spaniard to change his riding style and the way he approaches a race weekend. Even so, Lorenzo still considers him the technically best rider on the grid. Ever since he arrived in MotoGP, Marquez has been doing things nobody else can do. And when he finally had the best bike on the grid, he made the difference.

That said, the competition also made things easier for Marquez this year. Bezzecchi made several mistakes, and Martin broke the radius in his right wrist in his crash in Australia. Lorenzo particularly regrets Martin’s accident, because until then Aprilia, Ducati, Marquez and Martin had been very close together. Only the accident opened the door to a tenth title for Marquez. That is racing, he says: sometimes bad luck or a few wrong decisions decide a championship.

Who does Lorenzo see as Marquez’s successor?

Lorenzo is backing Pedro Acosta. The 23-year-old will become Marquez’s teammate at Ducati in 2027. Lorenzo rates him very highly and sees him improving quickly. Acosta has rarely been injured, is physically at 100 percent and is willing to take risks without worrying much about getting hurt. Marquez, on the other hand, has more experience with Ducati, so it will not be easy for Acosta. In the end, Lorenzo expects the two to deliver fairly similar results. The pairing is reminiscent of his own time at Yamaha: Rossi also had more experience in 2010, yet Lorenzo took the title back then.

Why does Rossi no longer play a role in the GOAT debate for Lorenzo?

If Marquez wins the 2026 title, Lorenzo sees only two candidates left for the title of the best rider of all time: Marquez and Agostini. He no longer counts Rossi among them.

GOAT stands for “Greatest of all time”. Speaking to TNT Sports on the sidelines of the race in Qatar, Lorenzo explained that he expects a real debate between Marquez and Agostini. With a tenth world title, Marquez would undoubtedly be the greatest rider of the modern era for him. In terms of technique and riding skill, he even considers him the best ever.

Lorenzo’s assessment of his current form is interesting. In his opinion, Marquez was stronger last year, before his injury at the Indonesian Grand Prix in Mandalika. The crash there weakened him physically. This year he struggled to maintain his form, but made up for it with pure technique.

Lorenzo’s view of Rossi is not entirely neutral, however. At Yamaha the two were teammates and bitter rivals for years. At times, a wall even separated the two halves of the garage. Lorenzo’s last title in 2015 came in exactly the season in which Rossi accused Marquez of riding against him.

Why is Ducati celebrating a second place like a win?

For Gigi Dall’Igna, Qatar was the race that will ultimately decide the championship. Marquez was not the favourite there and still got the maximum out of it. That is why second place feels like a win to him, and the biggest one at that.

The general manager of Ducati Corse writes an analysis on LinkedIn after every race weekend. This time, almost everything revolved around his rider’s maturity. Marquez knows exactly when to attack and when it is wiser to take the points. He reads not only his own situation correctly, but also that of his rivals. Dall’Igna sums it up in one sentence: “Versatile as ever, Marc knows exactly what needs to be done.”

In the race itself, Marquez split the distance into two halves. In the first, he saved his tyres and deliberately kept the pace low. In the second, he raised the pace significantly, set the fastest lap and fought his way back to second place. Dall’Igna already calls Saturday’s Sprint, his tenth Sprint win of the season, the most important of the year.

Marquez sees it similarly. In the Ducati press release after the race, he explained that his rivals were very strong in Lusail. But because he scored the most points that weekend, you could say he won the duel in Qatar.

What is still at stake for Ducati in the last two races?

Besides the riders’ title, the manufacturers’ championship is on the line. There, Ducati leads Aprilia by just eight points, and the decision will only come in Portimão or Valencia.

So there are no celebrations at Ducati yet. Dall’Igna warns that the job is not done and that full commitment is needed in the last two races. The team owes that to everyone involved, but also to its rivals and the fans.

In the manufacturers’ standings, only the best-placed rider of each brand counts in every Sprint and Grand Prix. Having more bikes on the grid therefore gives Ducati no automatic advantage. Aprilia can send four riders to the front with Martin, Bezzecchi, Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura. At Ducati, it is usually Marquez who has to hold them off.

Ducati may be missing one rider in the process. Francesco Bagnaia broke two bones in his right foot in his crash in the Qatar Sprint and has since undergone surgery. When he will return is open. Dall’Igna hopes to see him in the garage at the last two races in order to give him a worthy farewell. After six years and two world titles with the factory team, Bagnaia is moving to Aprilia for next season.

What did Rossi say about Marquez’s birthday?

Rossi said on Italian radio station Radio Deejay that he had feared his daughter Giulietta might be born on Marquez’s birthday. It was meant as a joke.

Marquez’s birthday is on 17 February, one day after Rossi’s. According to Rossi, at one point there was a risk that Giulietta would be born on exactly that day. He jokingly told his partner to hold on and not to play any tricks. Giulietta was eventually born on 4 March 2022.

The remark fits the past few days. Rossi is currently presenting his autobiography and has repeatedly brought up the 2015 dispute, which he says still hurts him today. At the same time, Marquez is about to overtake Rossi in the all-time rankings. Since retiring from MotoGP five years ago, Rossi has been racing cars. He won his last world title in 2009.

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