World Champions in every sport make winning look so easy. MotoGP™ is no exception but there is one major difference to many of those other sports. One mistake can cost you a race, a world title, or even worse. After four rounds Marc Marquez has won seven of the eight races but his crash at Austin was a stark reminder. The Ducati Lenovo Team rider seemingly cruising to his sixth successive win of the season momentarily lost concentration. No chance of pulling back the football goal, tennis set, or rugby try he’d just conceded. The merest touch of the damp white line by his front wheel and down he went. No chance of redemption, Marquez’s race was over.

Winning Grand Prix races has always been about the riders’ skill and sheer ability but over the last 76 years that winning mindset has had to change dramatically. Today, a Grand Prix lasts around 40 minutes with the Tissot Sprint half that time. So much going on in such a short time frame. Little time to settle into any sort of rhythm. So much technology to constantly check and change on a modern MotoGP machine and then of course there is the small matter of the opposition. Rules to adhere to while riding a 360 kph monster. Marquez won those opening seven races brilliantly working out the complexity of the tyre pressure rules and looking after his tyres. Then there was the continual annoying presence of his younger kid brother who would just not go away. Not only was it bad enough to lose the World Championship lead after the mistake in Austin but how would you react if was your younger brother rubbing it in. Two week’s later under the Qatar floodlights Alex then collided into the rear end of his brother’s Ducati as they contested who was going to lead coming out of the very first corner.

Over half a century ago the likes of Giacomo Agostini and Mike Hailwood were dominating a very different Grand Prix World Championship.  They still share the record for 19 Grand Prix wins in one season. Ago, riding the MV Agusta, won 20 successive 500cc Grands Prix in 1968/69. On two occasions Hailwood won three separate Grands Prix on the same day. Of course, they were riding superior multi cylinder machinery and competing in more than one class, but that only tells half the story. The Grands Prix were marathons compared to today. The road circuits such as the Isle of Man, Opatija, Imatra, Dundrod and the Sachsenring were both very dangerous and in some cases scarily quick. Concentration and stamina were a crucial ingredient of that winning mentality. One lapse could not only cost you a victory and a world title, but also your safety.

In 1957 Scottish rider Bob McIntyre won the longest World Championship race ever staged. Riding the Gilera he took three hours 2.57 minutes to win the 485.768 kms eight lap Senior TT race in the Isle of Man. Despite being in the saddle for over one eighth of a complete day, McIntyre still managed to average 159.312 kph. He would have hardly pulled on his gloves and adjusted his goggles when a modern-day MotoGP encounter had finished. I bet he slept well that night.

Sometimes, a rider would show the public he could have won a race but was told not to. In 1968 Yamaha told Bill Ivy they wanted him to win the 250 cc World Championship and his so-called team-mate Phil Read the 125cc title. At the third round in the Isle of Man Ivy had just set the very first 100mph lap of the mountain circuit on a 125cc machine and led Read by around two minutes. Not wanting to disobey Yamaha he stopped on the last lap to talk to spectators, asking them with tongue in cheek, who was winning. Read raced by to win by almost a minute. Ivy had made his point, but Read had the last laugh. At the final round in Monza he ignored Yamaha’s orders and won both 125cc and 250cc World titles.

Double MotoGP World Champion Barry Sheene told me he had real problems concentrating one hundred per cent when leading a race. His mind would wander. Sheene would start thinking about where he had left his car keys and what he was having for dinner later that evening rather than the next corner. I don’t think he experienced such problems at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium in 1977. Riding the RG 500 cc Suzuki, the World Champion averaged 217.370 kph winning the 141.200 kms race in just under 39 minutes. He also set the fastest ever Grand Prix lap on two wheels lapping the 14.120 kms tree lined circuit at an average speed of 220.721 khp kph. No time to worry if it was beef or chicken on the Sunday dinner menu.

Three times World Champion Wayne Rainey experienced very different problems while fighting for the lead in the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. The American Yamaha rider was recovering from a bad start but had fought his way through the field to begin an epic battle with his bitter enemy at the time, Kevin Schwantz, for the lead. He was so absorbed and concentrated, riding the sliding Yamaha to the absolute limit round the technically demanding track, he started an out of body surreal experience. Instead of riding the Yamaha he felt he was looking down on himself from above. It did not affect his performance although he finished second to Schwantz by less than half a second. I don’t think Rainey ever experienced the viewing from above feeling ever again. He went on to win three world titles before his life changing crash at Misano in 1993.

Australian Mick Doohan took over the mantle from Rainey, winning five successive World titles for Honda. Between 1995 -1997 he secured 37 successive points scoring finishes. Doohan always had to remain totally focused and concentrated because it was his Honda team-mates who caused him the most problems. Nothing annoyed Doohan more than team-mates who relied on him doing all the donkey work at the front, before trying to grab victory on the last lap. Team-mate Alex Criville stalked him throughout the 1996 Czech Republic Grand Prix in Brno. At the last corner at the top of the hill he dived inside his team-mate to win by 0.002s. The World Champion was none too impressed and never let it happen again.

Doohan had learned the hard way that just one lapse of concentration could cost you dear. He had won five of the opening seven rounds and finished second at the other two in 1992. He led the World Championship by a massive 53 points going into the Dutch TT in Assen. He crashed in qualifying and broke his leg. Doohan missed the next four Grands Prix but bravely limped into the final two only to lose the title by just four points to Wayne Rainey.

Incredibly Valentino Rossi never appeared to have problems concentrating on the job in hand as he dominated MotoGP. Such was the intense pressure on him off the track, I think actually getting out there alone on his bike, with winning Grands Prix his only concern for the next hour, was a pure blessed escape from his everyday life. No Italian tax man or manic media and fan attention to fill his head. Just concentrate on the job in hand, winning Grands Prix. The likes of Max Biaggi, Sete Gibernau, Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo and Marquez never made it easy for the seven-time premier class Champion. He relished and encouraged the different challenges they brought in his own very special way. When it appeared it might be getting a little too easy, he switched from all conquering Honda team to bring Yamaha MotoGP success in 2004. I always thought the organising and efforts put into the after-race celebrations might cloud his brain as the chequered flag approached. Eighty-nine premier class wins, and 199 podium finishes suggest the opposite. Blow up dolls, Hawaiian palm trees and swimming pools, Robin Hood outfits and Argentine football shirts just seemed to spur on the Doctor to even greater efforts and success.

Then Marquez arrived on the scene after tumultuous 125cc and Moto2 adventures that ended with two world titles. He just relished the chance to take on the big boys. Nobody was prepared for his arrival. Sensational does not even touch the sides for a rider who was not known for his patience and concentration en route to those two World titles. Marquez became the youngest ever rider to win a premier class grand prix, with victory on just his second ride on the Repsol Honda in Austin. He is still the youngest ever premier class World Champion after clinching the title at the final 2013 round in Valencia. That was just the start. Ten straight grands prix wins in 2014. I honestly thought he was going to win the lot when a mechanical glitch halted the domination at Brno.

Marquez always had plenty going on to keep him concentrated on the racetrack. The legendary duels with Rossi, the decline of Honda and some truly horrendous crashes as he fought to fight off the massive Ducati challenge.  This season on the factory Ducati Lenovo machine he was back, and it has come down to a family affair. The first time two brothers have finished first and second on a premier class podium. The first time since 1997 that two brothers finished on a premier class podium when Nobuatsu and Takuma Aoki finished second and third at Imola.

So, four rounds circumnavigating the globe before the start and comfort of the European season. The legendary Angel Nieto Jerez circuit in Spain. The triumphant Marquez brothers will return home to a hero’s welcome by the massive patriotic crowd. You would not dare bet against Marc adding another two wins, but as the Austin crash clearly illustrated, winning may look easy - but it isn’t.