Valentino Rossi: Marquez is best rookie ever

Valentino Rossi added to an already long list of plaudits for MotoGP sensation Marc Marquez when the Italian legend hailed the Repsol Honda rider as the best rookie he has ever seen.

Marquez continued his stunning form at Silverstone this afternoon when he obliterated the lap record with a thrilling lap of 2.00.691, which was over two seconds faster than Lorenzo’s 2012 benchmark.

The reigning Moto2 world champion is now looking a strong contender to notch a record-breaking fifth successive win in 2013 and factory Yamaha rival Rossi lavished more praise on the 20-year-old.

After qualifying in sixth position with a pace of 2.02.109 that was almost 1.5s slower than Marquez, Rossi said: “Sincerely what Marquez is doing this year is very impressive. More than me when I start, Marquez started with the mind to win the championship. In 2000 when I was a rookie I didn’t start to win the championship because in the first year I thought it was impossible. But Marc arrives with the mind to win in the first season and sincerely I never see a rookie like him in all the motorsport that I know.”

Marquez is doing an amazing job of trying to demoralise reigning world champion Lorenzo.

The Spaniard produced a blistering lap of 2.00.819 that he must have felt was good enough for pole as he hailed it as one of the best laps of his career.

But Marquez was able to lap 0.128s faster and Rossi said that performance was a measure of how tough it is going to be stopping Marquez from dominating MotoGP in the future.

He added: “When you do a lap and it is 2.00.8 and you arrive second it is a bit frustrating and Jorge doesn’t like that Marc arrives in front for sure. But I think Jorge has a good pace for tomorrow and we wait for improvements on the bike. Honda now is a bit better but a 00.8 from Jorge is impressive but a 00.6 from a rookie on the first time he rides a MotoGP bike at this track is something more impressive.”

For 11-pages of British Grand coverage, see the September 4 issue of Motor Cycle News.