Big Read: Marquez says goodbye to Honda after 11 years and six MotoGP crowns

Wednesday, October 4 will go down in history as the day Honda’s greatest rider called time on the world’s biggest and most successful motorcycle manufacturer.

It’s been an 11-year partnership of almost unprecedented highs along with plenty of bone-shattering lows.

But as MotoGP’s benchmark rider leaves the Big H behind, his impact on not only the Japanese company, but the entire racing world, is beyond measure.

From the moment Marquez graduated from Moto2 and into MotoGP in 2013 as a fresh-faced 20-year-old, the Spaniard gave the established MotoGP aliens a glimpse of an even more superior life form.

That MotoGP career to date has seen him race, beat and demoralise an elite who had seemed impenetrable to both exuberance and youth.

But his success speaks for itself, winning the title in his rookie year to join Kenny Roberts in a very, very exclusive club…