Introducing: Marc Marquez, the 2025 MotoGP World Champion. From record-setting rookie to record-breaking comeback, come with us for a ride through 2013 to 2025. 

After his incredible form this season, it’s been a matter of when, not if, for some time – but it’s official: Marc Marquez (Ducati Lenovo Team) is the 2025 MotoGP World Champion. Following his second place result at the Motul Grand Prix of Japan, the famous #93 takes his seventh crown in MotoGP – 2184 days after he last won the title. So who is the #93 and how did he win six titles in seven seasons before needing another six years to return to the throne in 2025?

From Cervera to Champion: early career and MotoGP glory

From Cervera, Spain, Marquez was born in 1993 – hence the number he’s taken to the top of the world. His early career set him apart as a MotoGP star of the future, and he took the 125cc World Championship in 2010 and Moto2™ World Championship in 2012. There was plenty of expectation around Marquez on his MotoGP debut with the Repsol Honda Team in 2013, but the #93 still outpaced it.

A podium first time out became a first win second time out, and he went on to become the youngest rider to clinch the MotoGP crown. He was also the first rookie to achieve the feat in 35 years. But 2013 was only a taste of what was to come as the #93 made his mark – bringing the “elbow down” riding style to MotoGP.

The dominant years: 2014–2019

In 2014 he won the first 10 Grands Prix and took his second MotoGP crown. 2015 began well, before some mistakes and hurdles saw Marquez lose the title for the first time since moving up to MotoGP.

The end of the season was highly dramatic too, as Marquez and Valentino Rossi clashed in Sepang, taking the sport’s biggest rivalry into another dimension. The tense finale in Valencia saw Jorge Lorenzo, then Rossi’s teammate, emerge victorious in the Championship.

In 2016 Marquez got back on top. 2017 was a rockier start but the fight went to the wire as Marquez vs Dovizioso created some of the greatest duels in MotoGP history. Marquez came out on top for title number four in MotoGP.

2018 resulted in more glory but there were more hurdles too, including a hotly debated Argentina race that saw the number 93 get three penalties, a resurgent Lorenzo, and more last corner lunges on Dovizioso. Then came 2019, which will go down as one of Marquez’s finest seasons. 12 wins out of 19, 18 podiums out of 19, and a points total of 420 even before the Tissot Spint era. On top of the world and redefining MotoGP – and then came 2020.

Injury hell: 2020–2023

At the season opener, held in Jerez due to the calendar changes obliged by Covid, Marquez ran off early on and faced a fight back through the field. The laptimes were almost beyond the mortal realm as the #93 put the hammer down to make it back to the front at his home GP – but then he found the limit and crossed it. He crashed out at Turn 3 and in a flash, his career path changed.

A fractured right humerus was the result. He first tried to make his comeback a week later but that was too soon. That one crash then became the beginning of a four-season nightmare that included four surgeries on the same arm, three of which were in 2020 when the plate from the first surgery broke, resulting in a second operation – before a third was required after the bone became infected and wouldn’t heal.

After a winter of rehabilitation, Marquez made his initial injury comeback in 2021. He even won three of the 14 Grands Prix he competed in. But then he withdrew from the final two rounds after a training crash led to a diagnosis with diplopia – a double vision problem that he first suffered after a crash near the end of the 2011 Moto2 season.

The crucial fourth surgery

Back from that, 2022 started positively with a P5 but a huge highside at Round 2 saw Marquez miss the remainder of the event, and following the crash, the diplopia returned. He underwent more surgery and returned to action fairly swiftly a few weeks later in Austin. However, after the Italian GP, Marquez confirmed he’d be heading off for a fourth surgery on his arm – and this time it was make or break for his career. All in to fix it back to 100%, which it never had been after that 2020 crash.

He travelled to the Mayo Clinic in the US for the pivotal operation, which included re-breaking and rotating his arm by roughly 30 degrees externally, before stabilising it with a new plate and screws. Marquez missed six rounds and made his highly anticipated return in Aragon.

Getting back in the groove, he earned a P2 in Australia to end another difficult year on a slightly higher note. But with an arm that was now on the way to being truly 100%.

The Decision: Honda exit to join Gresini Ducati

In 2023, Marquez experienced more injury woes, but this time it wasn’t his arm. A crash at the season opener meant Marquez picked up a broken bone in his hand and he missed three races due to that. Then, in June, a bruising weekend at the Sachsenring saw him crash five times.

The result was not racing on Sunday in Germany – a track he’s won at nine times in MotoGP – and a withdrawal from the Dutch GP the following weekend. He even flipped the bike off as the situation seemed to hit boiling point between man and machine.

Rumours abounded about his future with Honda, with whom he’d raced since Day 1 in MotoGP, as the project struggled to find the same race-winning form that has made HRC the most successful factory in MotoGP history. Ultimately, Marquez decided it was time for a change – and he announced it in an emotional press conference in Indonesia. He was to move to the Gresini team to race a year-old spec Ducati, reportedly almost for free, walking away from tens of millions in Honda contract for a bike he believed he could win with. He did.

2024, his first on a Ducati, saw him win three races and finish the year third overall, behind only the duo who fought for the title on the latest spec machine: Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia. By mid-season the other big story was about his future once again – who would pair Bagnaia in the factory Ducati team in 2025? Martin? Enea Bastianini? Or Marc Marquez? Martin decided he was done waiting for an answer and created one himself, announcing a move to Aprilia. Ducati signed Marquez to race in red and more history was set in motion.

The Greatest Comeback

From almost retiring in the nightmare of four seasons of suffering, Marquez has put together one of the most dominant MotoGP seasons of all time. Having redefined a lot of what it means to win in MotoGP when he made his debut as a rookie, the #93 has done it again in 2025, throwing down the gauntlet for the grid. 2184 days, multiple surgeries, three teams, two factories, yet more records and a seventh MotoGP crown later, he stands on top of the world – having made the greatest comeback in the history of sport.

Name us a better one – we’ll wait.

More from another press release issued by Dorna: 

Marc Marquez: his comeback in numbers. The #93 is celebrating more than a number – but they tell their own story too. 

Marc Marquez has taken his seventh MotoGP World Championship, 2184 days since he last became MotoGP World Champion in 2019. Winning the title in Japan at Round 17 of 22 makes it the third earliest a rider has ever secured the MotoGP crown in the modern era.

He has competed for three different teams and two different manufacturers since he was last MotoGP World Champion in 2019.

He’s undergone five surgeries on his right arm and shoulder since he was last MotoGP World Champion in 2019 – during which time he has missed 30 races.

He has crashed 108 times since he was last MotoGP World Champion in 2019.

There were 581 days between his last win in 2019 and his first win back from injury in Germany in 2021, and then another 1043 days until he won again in Aragon 2024 after two more injuries, multiple surgeries, and his change of team and factory.

He is now the rider with the longest wait between MotoGP World Championships: six years. The previous longest gap was for Casey Stoner, who had four years between his titles in 2007 (Ducati) and 2011 (Honda).

He has the second most MotoGP wins of any rider – 73 and counting. Valentino Rossi has the most, with 89 victories.

His 2025 points total of 541 has already surpassed the previous totals in the Sprint era (since 2023) with five GPs remaining. He has the most doubles in a single season – 10 – taking the record from Francesco Bagnaia, who took five in 2024.

Marc Marquez is the sixth rider in history to win MotoGP World Championships with different factories (Honda and Ducati), along with Casey Stoner (Ducati and Honda), Valentino Rossi (Honda and Yamaha), Eddie Lawson (Yamaha and Honda), Geoff Duke (Norton and Gilera) and Giacomo Agostini (MV Agusta and Yamaha).

Marquez is the fourth different rider who has taken a MotoGP World Championship with Ducati along with Casey Stoner (2007)., Francesco Bagnaia (2022, 2023) and Jorge Martin (2024). In 2025, he became the second Ducati rider to win on their debut with the factory team, after Casey Stoner.

He has set the record as the rider with most MotoGP wins in a row with Ducati – seven from Aragon to Hungary this year. He is also the first rider to score seven doubles (Sprint and GP wins) in a row, also from Aragon to Hungary. He took his 14th win with Ducati in Misano, equalling Andrea Dovizioso in third on the list of the most successful Ducati riders in MotoGP, behind Francesco Bagnaia (30 wins) and Casey Stoner (23).

His seventh MotoGP World Championship sees him equal Valentino Rossi’s number of MotoGP titles. Only one rider has more – Giacomo Agostini on eight.