Reflecting on an extraordinary run of 56 consecutive hard-court victories, Tennis star Roger Federer once spoke of how, when everything clicked into place during a 🌠tournament, he felt unstoppable:
"It feels like everything is slow-mo coming towards me and you feel like for the opponent everything is going super fast," . "So that's when I feel at times invincible.
"It's very rare but🍬 it has happened in the past and it's a beautiful thing to have as a tennis player, or as an athlete."
After taking his 73rd grand prix victory at Le Mans on Sunday, reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez was asked if he had experienced a simila🌳r feeling of invincibility during his racing career.
"Yes. I felt invincible in 2014 and then 2015, boom!" Marq﷽uez laughed.
"I crashed many times because I felt like... I arrived in MotoGP [and won the title] in 2013. In 2𒀰014 I won 13 races, including ten in a row. And then I said in 2015, 'I will win the title again'.
"You feel really 💮good, but then [things happen] in the normal way. I mean, we are humans. We do some mistakes. We need to learn about it.
"But, we are in MotoGP and everybody is so fast and if you ꦑwant to be the best you ne🙈ed to be precise in all the areas."
The 2015 season saw Marquez suffer his only title defeat to date in the premier-class, finishinᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚg behind Yamaha riders Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi after six DNFs.
Fast forward to 2019 and the Repsol Honda rider, winner of seven world titles in the last nine years, has already overcome a shock non-score in Austin to retake the championship advantage ܫby eight points following the French round.
Of the races he has finished, Marquez's only defeat has been by a miniscule 0.02🌸3s margin to Andrea Dovizioso in the Qatar season opener.
"It’s not frustrating [to only be eight poi൲nts ahead] because I did one zero. One zero with only five races is something that you pay for," he said.
Marquez added that the COTA error, while on his way to extendin🐭g what had been a per꧂fect victory record at the circuit, served as a reminder to remain focussed at all times.
"We did the zero at the track we didn’t expect. It's one of the years that I feel stronger on the bike and I did a mistake where I didn’t expect it. So that means we need to be so concentrated in all the situations, in all the rꦦacetracks."
Although Alex Rins and Suzuki have taken a race win already this season, with Ya𝔍maha also making a more competitive start than previous years, Marquez currently sees only one opponent as being able to꧟ offer a consistent challenge.
"D✤ovi is doing a great job. If you see the other contenders they are up here in FP1, in FP2 down there, but Dovi is always in the top five. This is the way to fight for the championship and we are there also.
"Already in last two years Dovi was a tough opponent and he 💛will be a toughജ opponent again this year."
The Du🔯cati rider has finished title runner-up to Marquez for the past tw🌺o seasons.
Peter has been in the paddock ꦇfor 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit sto🅘ry and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.