Marc Marquez screamed his lungs out before pumping his fists in the air in ecstasy as soon as he crossed the finish line.

Seeing the chequered flag first is nothing out of the ordinary for the six-time MotoGP World Champion, yet the win felt special, the celebrations exuberant. While pulling off a flawless weekend warranted it, the fact that it was his first win in Qatar after over a decade made it perhaps even sweeter.

It was only a couple of days ago that many had posed doubts on his chances of pulling off a win in Lusail, based on his record as well as the nature of the track. Marquez himself had admitted it.

“This is the first circuit where Alex [Marquez] and Pecco [Francesco Bagnaia] are better,” he said ahead of the weekend, alluding to the flowing layout that clashes with his riding style.

That was, until the 32-year-old hit the track on Friday. Not only did he clock the circuit’s fastest time en route to his fourth consecutive pole of the season, but he also dominated the Sprint. A win in the final race was not out of bounds now.

“I’ve been waiting for him to win in Qatar for so long,” said Femish Manghat, wearing a Marquez merch. Manghat grew up obsessed with motorbikes and owns two of those back home in India.

“This is a passion for me — I watch races to destress,” he said. Now 34 and based in Doha as an engineer, Manghat said a Marquez win in Qatar would “remain with me for a while” — something that had not happened in the two previous years, which he was present at in Lusail.

Like Manghat, most who stood up in anticipation as engines revved moments ahead of Sunday were draped in some shade of red. Be it a Spanish flag, a Ducati merch or huge banners with the number 93, thousands had turned up to witness Marquez.

After all, here was a rider who once had left the sport reeling, having swept six titles in his first seven seasons in the premier class, quickly establishing his name among some of the sport’s greatest riders ever. By the age of 26, he was an eight-time World Champion, the Moto2 and 125cc titles included.

“He changed the parameters of the sport in many ways,” said
Adam Wheeler, author of Motorcycle Grand Prix: Insider stories from world championship racing. “He was and is very much the reference for performance, speed and style. In my opinion, he’s still the greatest motorcycle racer I’ve seen.”

Things changed for the worse when a horrible accident in 2020 broke Marquez’s right arm, putting an end to the breakthrough run. The Ant of Cervera, nicknamed for his short stature and the place of his birth, has yet to win a World Championship ever since. “Now, it is harder to be competitive,” he said after winning in San Marino last year, adding it required double the effort compared to his previous spells.

Ending his long-time association with Honda for the 2024 season, a third-place finish in the World Championship — his best since 2019 — and the switch to Ducati for 2025, however, reignited a new storyline. Marquez would be in a machine that had beaten him for the title in recent time.

And his teammate would be an interesting character, too. He would be with 2022 and 2023 world champion Bagnaia, a pairing that quickly drew comparison with Formula 1’s once legendary duo of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna — teammates in McLaren, yet championship rivals.

That switch to Ducati did not make long-time Honda fan since 1994, Alex Bouwer hate Marquez. It made Bouwer, who had flown from South Africa for the weekend with his son Dean, like the Spaniard even more. It was only natural that Dean, his son, is also a big-time Marc Marquez fan and one of those who wore the red cap with the number 33 on the side.

“I liked Dani Pedrosa to start. Then Marc came in as number two, and he just grew on us,” Bouwer said, explaining where his support stems from while donning a t-shirt with a cartoon rendition of the Marquez brothers printed on it.

For Bouwer, Marquez’s switch showed his willingness to win. The move, he said, was good for the sport. “He’s a good guy, He’s humble. When he gave up all the money just to be able to win again, I think that made a lot of fans like him more. Even if I wasn’t a fan, I would have liked that attitude. I will always support him.”

That comeback story, especially after having a fantastic start to the season, bar the crash in the race before, dominated the narrative. The timings in practice and the emphatic Sprint victory only accentuated that — the once prodigal rider could return to the peak of his powers, conquering his nemesis.

“It has been a long journey for him. He’s been on a bit of a rollercoaster of fitness, form, belief, technical deficiencies,” explained Wheeler, who has been covering the sport for more than two decades.

“He’s in a position to come back to form and overturn some of the fortunes that he’s experienced in the last half a decade. I think there are a lot of people who want to see him do it and want to see him go through the whole comeback story.”

And come back he did. Despite losing his first place following a collision with his brother Alex early in the race, Marquez rose to the occasion. Re-taking the lead with seven laps to go, the Spaniard then managed his race well, winning in a fashion that, in retrospect, looked his to take.

“If he goes the extra mile to win tomorrow, then that is also perhaps another symbol of what could happen the rest of this season. It’s scary what else he could do this year,” Wheeler had analysed on Saturday, alluding to the potential of Marquez bringing his first title since 2019 home.

Marquez leads the World Championship tally now with three wins out of four races so far in the season, his quality looking as close to his pre-2020 self as ever.

“To myself, it’s the most important weekend of the season,” Marquez said after the win, his smile as wide as ever. His fans had just witnessed the maestro at his finest — a more mature version of the boy who had won ahead of the great Valentino Rossi back in 2014.

An hour after the final race had ended, fans were still queuing outside the merchandise store. Ay, a Malaysian stationed in one of the booths, said Marquez’s merch sold the most over the weekend.

Clearly, most who made it to Lusail wanted a souvenir of a race that could mark end of Marquez’s dip, and the start of yet another dominant era.