Hail to the chief. Wave the flags. Marc’s coming home. Not so much a case of MAGA but MMaGA (Make Marquez Great Again). Because that’s what happens when he goes to the United States, making this potentially the weekend that he reminds his rivals exactly what he is made of. And that he is ready to become unbeatable again, on his new Ducati.

That’s what the statistics say, anyway… though there may be a few riders (and fans) with a different view. It will certainly focus the attention on the coming weekend at COTA.

Marc’s dazzling US statistics encompass two out of three classes as he was a mere top-10 finisher in 125. After that they are beyond impressive.

Bear in mind that they were not only accrued at the current swoopy track outside Austin, Texas. Seems anywhere in the US is really special for Marc. Probably Canada too, if they were to host a MotoGP.

Marc won in MotoGP’s last and his first visit to Laguna Seca in 2013, and five times at Indianapolis, unbeaten in Moto2 and MotoGP between 2011 and the final Brickyard outing in 2015.

By then he’d already taken control at COTA. He was the first winner there in 2013 and repeated it as if by right until 2018, starting from pole every time. He was leading by miles in 2019, from pole again, when his Honda electronics threw a fit and tossed him off. It was an early warning of the bike’s increasingly uncertain temper.

There was no race in 2020. In any case Marc was out of action with his broken arm. But he was back in 2021 and won again. Only in 2022 (he missed 2023 injured) was it different. His growing struggle with both the Honda and his squiffy arm saw him qualify ninth. Then he was left on the line with another electronic glitch. A mechanic had damaged an electronic sensor in an unfamiliar position on the swingarm. He was last away, finished lap one 18th, then battled back to sixth, sandwiched between Pecco Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo.

This invincibility is not necessarily unbreakable though and Marc is in an interesting position. In a satellite team, on a supposedly inferior bike, he is still working on adapting his unique style to the differing demands of the Ducati.

At the same time he is now one of the elder statesmen – one of just four riders in their 30s, albeit the youngest: Johann Zarco, Takaaki Nakagami and Aleix Espargaro are older. This at a time when the much-feared tide of youth is led by the tsunami of Pedro Acosta, so far making a fine fist of not just rivalling Marc’s own title-winning first MotoGP season but threatening to beat him for a second time this year. In spite of less previous GP experience.

It makes this Americas GP a hugely important race for the former king, who has made a sporting but not yet devastating start to his post-Honda comeback. If he is going to reassert his dominance, this is the time to do it. Especially because of a perceived machine advantage of sorts. He has last year’s Ducati, and to say it is fully developed is to understate the case. But it is certainly free from the chatter problems troubling Bagnaia and Co on the 2024 bikes.

And Acosta, second-race podium notwithstanding, is still a beginner, his KTM/GasGas not quite the equal of last year’s Ducati. Or is it? Or will Alex Rins, who beat Valentino Rossi here in 2019, give Yamaha something to celebrate?

The significance of this third race of a so-far fascinating season goes beyond the normal. Will Marc make his mark or will this indicate the beginning of the always inevitable end?

Can hardly wait to find out.

WORDS: MICHAEL SCOTT