Marc Márquez

Early life

Márquez was born to Roser Alentà and Julià Márquez on 17 February 1993 in Cervera, Catalonia. He received his first dirt bike, a Yamaha PW50, at age four and took up competitive motocross racing. He finished runner-up in the Catalan junior motocross championship in 2000 and won it in 2001.

That year he also began road racing. In 2003 he won the Open RACC 50cc series at his first attempt. Moving to a 125cc bike in 2004, he raced in the Catalan 125cc championship with Pol Espargaró as his teammate, finishing runner-up in 2004 and winning the championship in 2005 and 2006.

He made his debut in the 125cc Spanish Road Racing Championship in 2006, finishing eighth. At twelve years old he was small and weighed 29 kilos, so his team added 21 kilos of extra weight to his bike and leathers. After a ninth-place finish in 2007, he moved into the world championship for the 2008 season.

Career

Marc Márquez first raced in the world championship on 13 April, riding a KTM in the 125cc Portuguese Grand Prix when he was 15 years and 56 days old. Only six races later, at the British Grand Prix, he took third place, making him the youngest Spanish rider ever to stand on a Grand Prix podium. That season, he was the only competitor on a non-Piaggio machine to finish in the top three, ending the year 13th overall. The next season, he earned another third-place finish at Jerez and grabbed his first pole position at the French Grand Prix at 16 years and 88 days, again a record for a Spanish rider.

He also secured pole in Malaysia but retired from both races, finishing eighth in the standings. In 2010, he switched to a faster Derbi bike with Red Bull Ajo. He hit the podium twice in the first three races, then won his first Grand Prix at Mugello on 6 June. Victories followed at Silverstone, Assen, and Barcelona, making him the youngest rider to win four straight races.

A win at the Sachsenring made him the first since Valentino Rossi to take five consecutive 125cc wins. After a rough patch over the next four rounds, he won at Misano but struggled at Brno and Indianapolis. A crash with Randy Krummenacher at Aragon dropped him to third in the standings. He then reeled off four more wins in a row—Motegi, Malaysia, Australia, and Estoril—building a 17-point lead over Nicolás Terol.

At Estoril, rain red-flagged the race; Márquez fell on the sighting lap, had to pit for repairs, and started from the back, yet still won. A fourth-place finish in Valencia sealed his first world title at 17 years and 263 days, making him the second-youngest champion ever, behind only Loris Capirossi.

Personal life

Márquez called Cervera home until 2022. Eight years earlier, Spanish media had reported a planned move to Andorra for tax reasons, but he stayed put. He eventually relocated to Madrid for better care of his injured right arm.

His brother Álex lived with him initially, then bought his own nearby home in 2026. Since 2023, he has dated model Gemma Pinto. He is fluent in Catalan, Spanish, English, and Italian, and supports FC Barcelona.

In the media

Márquez races with the number 93, chosen after his birth year. Although entitled to use the number 1 plate as a world champion, he has never done so. On his Honda bikes the number was displayed in white on a red background; since switching to Ducati it appears in red. He used the slogan 'todo al rojo' to publicise his move to the Ducati factory team.

Nicknamed the 'Ant of Cervera' due to his height of 1.69m, he has used an ant motif on gloves, helmets, pit boards, and merchandise since 2012. He is also called 'el tro de Cervera' in his hometown. In 2023 he launched WeAre93, an official fan club with a dedicated grandstand at most races, and his merchandise is sold under the same name. Márquez has celebrated championship victories with custom slogans: '#GiveMe5' in 2016, '#BIG6' in 2017, '#Level7' in 2018, and '#8ball' in 2019, during which he sank an eight-ball into a pool table beside the track.

In 2025, after Dorna announced plans to separate premier class title counts from lower-class titles, he used the slogan 'More Than A Number'. He has been the subject of several documentaries, including the 2013 feature-length film Rookie #93 Marc Márquez: Beyond the Smile and the 2015 documentary Hitting the Apex, narrated by Brad Pitt, which profiled him alongside five other riders.