English
Italiano
You have to write down what you witness immediately, in the heat of the moment, to capture the essence of a sporting event and stop time, but sometimes that is not the case.
Sometimes it is necessary to let your feelings and emotions calm down, to let them settle on the surface of your consciousness, before you can talk about them.
Marc Marquez's victory at Phillip Island was exactly one of these cases where it is better to wait than to write about it out of the blue, because the waiting, the time spent trying to understand this latest victory, gives us the time to fully understand it.
And the point is this: Marc only cares about his own victories. He doesn't care about anything else. In Australia when he was certain that he could take his victory haul to 88, he went after Bagnaia and Martin without distinguishing between one and the other.
He used different tactics, of course, because Pecco was easy prey, while with Jorge he had to work harder, was forced to encircle him, sting him, make him understand how far his determination would go. And Martinator gave in.
He used, of course, his class, but also his charisma and even his legend - if you have Marc Marquez behind you, you know he's going to attack you - to win. But that took us back to 2015. To the race in which he was accused of cheating to favor Jorge Lorenzo - whom he beat at the finish line - when he simply used class and strategy to get the result, the individual victory, which was all he cared about.
It is, after all, a characteristic of champions to see beyond, to understand in detail what a given action entails. To foresee reactions and thus act reasonably sure of the outcome.
Valentino Rossi, in his days of thunder has given us ample proof of this, and that is why he is what he is: a legend. Someone who - like everyone who goes beyond the normal and the rational - is loved and hated. And it does not matter in what percentages this is calculated. Just think that there are even those who deny the majesty of Giacomo Agostini, a rider light years ahead of his peers. As light years Vale was, as Marc is. And we are waiting to crown his heirs, Acosta included. I don't see any.
And when I observe certain pathetic gags of today, an aping of Rossi that homogenizes what every champion should be - unique - I weep. Even if doing them is a fast and characterful rider.
Anyway...this week, and next, we will witness the last non-European double-whammy of the season, the Thai and Malaysian GPs, before the Valencia showdown.
The Australian GP authorizes us to think that Marquez could be part of the game, along with Martin, Bagnaia and Bastianini.
Please let us avoid even imagining for one moment that Marc, but also Enea, could meddle in the title fight, even though we know that yes, for sure, they will be there in the middle, fighting for it. There is only one thought, for both of them, success, individual victory. The one that counts, the one that remains, even if for this year for both of them the title hopes seem to have gone. Perhaps.
