Watch MotoGP, because Marc Marquez is its Senna

From Road & Track

Abandon your yardwork, your sink fixing, your kid's baseball game. Put all that stuff on a shelf, put junior on your lap, and forget about it because you should really watch MotoGP this afternoon.

At a minimum, you'll get a glimpse of BMW's absurdly cool, water-injected M4 safety car. Come to think of it, that should be enough for some of you. For the rest, there's the chance of getting to see something special happen in Texas.

Reining MotoGP champion Marc Marquez didn't make the podium in the first race of the season. That's not his style, and he showed up in Austin on an absolute tear. In Saturday's qualifying session Marquez was once again the man to beat, handily besting his record-setting time from 2014. Late in the qualifying session, a handful of riders, including seven-time champion and season-opener winner Valentino Rossi, stepped up to challenge Marquez, who was quick to remount his Honda and try to work his way back up.

And that's what he was in the middle of doing, with just minutes to go in the qualifying session, when his bike crapped out on the long front straight of Circuit of the Americas. I would have been fine settling for a decent start from the second row. Most of the MotoGP field probably would have been fine starting from the second row. Marquez certainly has the speed to win from the second row. But that's just not what legends do.

Marquez leaned his Honda up against the wall, leapt over it and into pit row, and sprinted to pick up his backup bike. The young Spaniard started his out-lap with the clock running dangerously low, and his mad scramble to cross the start/finish line on cold tires was absolutely art.

Or, I thought it was, until his next lap set the pole. And a new track record.

We talk often about the greatness of Senna, his character and his guts. There are guts of that magnitude cementing their legend in MotoGP right now. Ghost ride your lawnmower, leave the car unwashed. Go and watch.

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