Valentino Rossi
Marc Marquez
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Valentino Rossi leads 3 of 5 categories. Our all-time ranking places Valentino Rossi at #2 and Marc Marquez at #3.
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The case for Valentino Rossi
Nine world titles and 115 Grand Prix wins across 125cc, 250cc, 500cc and MotoGP, plus records that still stand for premier-class victories, 89, and premier-class podiums, 199, from 432 career starts over 26 seasons. Rossi won the last 500cc two-stroke title in 2001 and the first MotoGP four-stroke title in 2002, then made the defining move of the modern era: he joined a Yamaha that had not won a race in 2003, won first time out at Welkom in 2004 and took the championship, then repeated it in 2005. Titles followed again in 2008 and 2009. His durability is the outlier. He was still winning Grands Prix in 2017 at 38, seventeen years after his first premier-class win, and finished runner-up in 2015 after the most bitter title fight of the era. He also did more than anyone to turn MotoGP into a global commercial property.
The case for Marc Marquez
Nine world championships: 125cc in 2010, Moto2 in 2012 and seven premier-class titles in 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2025. He became the youngest premier champion at 20 years and 266 days, having already become the youngest premier-class winner at Austin aged 20 years and 63 days. In 2014 he won 13 of 18 races, still the single-season record. Through the end of 2025 he had 73 premier-class wins, second only to Rossi, 99 career wins and 126 premier podiums from 206 starts. The 2025 season was the most statistically dominant on record: 11 Grands Prix, 14 Sprints and 545 points, a total no rider had reached, in his first year with the factory Ducati. It came after five operations on his right arm, 30 races missed and 2,184 days between championships, which is the strongest single argument in his favour.