Marquez felt invincible in 2014, then 'boom'…

Reflecting on an extraordinary run of 56 consecutive hard-court victories, Tennis star Roger Federer once spoke of how, when everything clicked into place during a tournament, he felt unstoppable:

"It feels like everything is slow-mo coming towards me and you feel like for the opponent everything is going super fast," Federer said. "So that's when I feel at times invincible.

"It's very rare but it has happened in the past and it's a beautiful thing to have as a tennis player, or as an athlete."

After taking his 73rd grand prix victory at Le Mans on Sunday, reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez was asked if he had experienced a similar feeling of invincibility during his racing career.

"Yes. I felt invincible in 2014 and then 2015, boom!" Marquez laughed.

"I crashed many times because I felt like... I arrived in MotoGP [and won the title] in 2013. In 2014 I won 13 races, including ten in a row. And then I said in 2015, 'I will win the title again'.

"You feel really good, but then [things happen] in the normal way. I mean, we are humans. We do some mistakes. We need to learn about it.

"But, we are in MotoGP and everybody is so fast and if you want to be the best you need to be precise in all the areas."

The 2015 season saw Marquez suffer his only title defeat to date in the premier-class, finishing behind Yamaha riders Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi after six DNFs.

Fast forward to 2019 and the Repsol Honda rider, winner of seven world titles in the last nine years, has already overcome a shock non-score in Austin to retake the championship advantage by eight points following the French round.

Of the races he has finished, Marquez's only defeat has been by a miniscule 0.023s margin to Andrea Dovizioso in the Qatar season opener.

"It’s not frustrating [to only be eight points ahead] because I did one zero. One zero with only five races is something that you pay for," he said.

Marquez added that the COTA error, while on his way to extending what had been a perfect victory record at the circuit, served as a reminder to remain focussed at all times.

"We did the zero at the track we didn’t expect. It's one of the years that I feel stronger on the bike and I did a mistake where I didn’t expect it. So that means we need to be so concentrated in all the situations, in all the racetracks."

Although Alex Rins and Suzuki have taken a race win already this season, with Yamaha also making a more competitive start than previous years, Marquez currently sees only one opponent as being able to offer a consistent challenge.

"Dovi is doing a great job. If you see the other contenders they are up here in FP1, in FP2 down there, but Dovi is always in the top five. This is the way to fight for the championship and we are there also.

"Already in last two years Dovi was a tough opponent and he will be a tough opponent again this year."

The Ducati rider has finished title runner-up to Marquez for the past two seasons.