rosquezism

"both of them are wrong.

valentino is wrong for not shaking his [marc's] hand. i think it's way too much pride --- like a little kid, this attitude...and above all, he's wrong for not taking the chance to tell his fans not to boo rivals on the podium and track, who haven't done anything to deserve that. so those are the two things he's got wrong.

vale, september 2025 (published march 2026):

“But the Aprilia is a bit worse than the Ducati. So, beating Marquez with a worse bike? Impossible.” (x, x)

marc, march 2026:

Q: There’s a lot of talk about which bike is better, the Ducati or the Aprilia, or how much it takes to figure that out. Marc Márquez, on the other hand, has a more decisive analysis. The 2025 world champion doesn't hesitate to state it clearly: "As always, it's a combination of things, but I feel I have the best bike and the best team, so it's all in my hands." concludes the Spaniard. (x, x)

vale, may 2026 (x):

marc, july 2026:

"I’m convinced that Ducati is the best bike for all 22 Grand Prix races. Sometimes I haven’t been able to get the most out of it, but it works very well.” (x)

even the analysis of marc's physical condition being the only differentiator in this title fight rather than the bikes themselves --- is the same.

marc himself concludes this in this earlier cited quote from march, 2026: "As always, it's a combination of things, but I feel I have the best bike and the best team, so it's all in my hands." 

which vale echoes in that earlier cited sky italia piece from may 2026:

and just a few days ago at WDW 2026, marc repeats that sentiment:

The rider from Cervera is convinced that the Ducati has all the potential it needs, but he identifies himself as the area that needs work. “The bike works, the team works, my mind works. We need to work on my physical condition to take another step forward this summer. My vacation will be shorter because I want to improve and see how far we can go with this right arm,” explained Márquez, who aims to restore his right shoulder to peak condition during the summer break. (x)

and in the presscon ahead of the german gp:

Who do you think is your biggest rival? “ My main rival, the one that worries me the most, is my physical condition. I don't care about the others. It's true that they are fast, but my rival for continuing to grow is my physique.” (x)

like, especially earlier on in the year when the championship was tilting heavily towards aprillia riders, everyone was convinced it was the bikes that make the difference. only now, with the series of unfortunate events with bezzecchi and the imminent threat to martin's lead with the outcome of sachsenring, are people beginning to question that narrative. whereas vale and marc match each other's consistency.

vale drawing such a resolute conclusion all the way back in september 2025, at a time when bezzecchi's performance --- which he also acknowledges --- was causing a buzz about aprillia exceeding expectations and threatening a stalling ducati, (x, x). while marc has an incentive to publicly maintain faith in his bike and team, he's not one to hold back on giving honest feedback as needed. but he, too, is resolute in this shared conclusion.

friday: vale & lando's (who maintains that vale is his childhood idol & hero (x) and they've been very friendly for a while now ---x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x; wanna point out that they were being all buddy-buddy at the san marino gp (x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x; dw marc, his head snaps to catch you as you pass by at one point, x) and, curiously, that's when marc does that messi celebration after winning (x, x, x, x, x), justifying it as 'a bit of spiciness is always nice' which is essentially #heknowswherehomeis #showhimwhathesmissing*) meeting at FOS plastered all over ig

saturday: marc brings up 2015 and reminds us of his triumph in the divorce (x) (sassy) (unprompted) (very much bothered) like yeah mr a-bit-of-spiciness-is-always-nice, of course you would!

like it's race weekend with crucial points on the line, right within reach, just placed 1st --- yet the king of the ring is apparently busy stalking an old man's ventures in england & settling an 11 year old score. welcome back, jealous marc!! (never left)

*that was also the weekend we got vale's reaction to marc's sprint crash (x, x); secret relationship angle: a definite 'if i don't laugh, i'll cry' reaction --- a struggle to keep his cover surrounded by antithetical company. it's also relief as marc fortunately slides into the safety padding, swiftly back on his feet and mobile when it could have been (given marc's extensive crash history) so much worse (x). marc then goes on to devour the race and deliver the that spicy celebration, totally out of left field for even those closest to him. it's not marc's first time being strangely extra at misano, aka vale's home circuit, either!

"I love Misano," he [vale] continues. "It's my place, my home. I'll have all my family and friends there. It's extra motivation to try to fight." [...] As his home venue, Rossi has been competing there for almost as long as he can remember. "Misano is for me is very special because it was my first track," he says. "I was there in 1992, riding a Cagiva 125 two-stroke. That's more than 30 years ago!" (x) + it's approx. 15 mins away from vale's home, so the likelihood of him showing up to the GP and at the very least forced to hear about the outcome is very high.

we can trace it back to 2015 when marc was celebrating like he won the championship there & then (x); he has quite literally never celebrated this hard before or after the fact. there's also a moment in his Marc Marquez: All In (2023) doc, where they showcase his return to the world championship scene following a 4th arm surgery --- (not so) coincidentally at the misano circuit. even chooses a romantic metaphor to convey his feelings about it: "the first time is like a first date. you're nervous...how will she react? will she smile or not? that kind of stuff," along with a cheeky grin. misano never fails to bring out this erotic and passionate energy from him. circling back to san marino --- like hello, why is he the only one undressed?! (x, x) taking the cooldown room concept very literally.

Marc in Episode 5 of 'Marc Marquez: All In (2023)'

always has a point to prove there. broke vale's circuit record (3) for the most wins, doubling it (6). maybe marc's determined to stick it to the haters/rossi fans swarming the place with their chorus of boo's --- but then why the romantic and sexual correlation? unless your message is exclusively dedicated to a certain someone, instead.

this targeting is evident in marc's domination of the brno circuit also; pushing himself to tears (x) to equal vale's record (5 wins), while the man himself was watching (x, x, x, x, x). marc's 4 wins here are spread out over the years, unlike the impenetrable sachsenring domination, for example. brno is his second win in a hard 2026 season, on top it being his third race since double surgery --- so grave risks, supreme strategy and extreme effort were applied. back-to-back wins following the hungary gp as well, so it was double the toll! as he himself admits:

“The intensity of Balaton and, above all, Brno can’t be sustained for 22 races.” - Marc earlier this month, July 2026 (x)

and it wasn't just for those valuable championship points, as evidenced by how incentivised marc suddenly becomes when a win would be particularly meaningful to vale. the greatest comeback of all time in 2025 equalled vale's championship record. with that done and gone, he's developed a relatively (uncharacteristically) relaxed attitude towards a 10th:

Marc admitted he isn’t obsessed with the idea of winning his tenth World Championship and thus equaling Giacomo Agostini’s record for titles in the premier class. Even though he’s fully in the running for the title. “I’d be extremely proud to win a tenth title. If I’d ended up with eight, I wouldn’t have liked it at all, but finishing with nine or ten world titles won’t change my life—I won’t be any happier or any less happy,” he admitted. “What I want is to finish (my career) having fun; I don’t want to burn myself out because of MotoGP. It’s hard to say, but there have been moments when I felt like I didn’t want to step into the paddock.” (x, x, x)

this is echoed in every press address this season, resulting in receiving accusations of being diplomatic about his true intentions (x). but anyone following this season closely can tell, it's clear that marc means it. he is being careful and taking it race-by-race. even the sachsenring domination this weekend was achieved within limits. so the brno push is an outlier to his overarching strategy. because for marc, vale is always the anomaly.

which ties into the FOS/sachsenring weekend, leading up to which marc is like this (x, x) on thursday. once the the lando/vale buddy-buddyness is in full swing on friday, marc crashes during practice (x), admits it was a failure on his part to correlate with earlier crashes (x). which is an odd lapse in detail given how cautious & focused marc's been to secure crucial points in his best circuit. but finishes in p1 anyway (x, x).

on saturday, we saw him not just take P1 again but do so by breaking & taking the record for the fastest lap on saturday from vr46's diggia (x, 'the record must be mine here,' x). after the race declares "I really wanted the record here" and outlines the serious preparations he's been making, giving his team cryptic instructions to achieve this since friday (x, x, x,). yet when asked about it prior, he was being all coy and guarding his true objective (x). but this reads as quite odd in a season where he's never steered clear of targeting records, prioritising preserving his physique as per his stoney-faced resolve on thursday (x); which he returns to post-sprint (x).

like he was all-smiles during celebrations but if you observe closely, he's not in the best of moods. of course, defending the title king of the ring comes with pressure for sunday's race and he cites some issues that still need tweaking with the bike --- but something's off. and this bleeds into the unprompted 2015 mention. an ironic dismissal of karma while poking an open wound that 5 championships apparently couldn't close.

all this reinforces this rigorous pattern of vale being marc's anomaly. someone he's extremely aware of and sensitive to, both on (which we've seen in their time racing together) and off the track (extending even into vale's retirement). i mean, lorenzo diagnosed this long ago:

"as for marc, i think he's wrong in the sense that it really affects him --- what valentino does, and he should totally ignore that--- what he [vale] does." (x)

the way marc throws a kiss in vale's direction when he feels vale's eyes on him?? (full clip here) let's pick this apart a bit...

the journalist hadn't completed the question yet so it's not a precursory mouth movement from being on the verge of speaking. the nodding and blinking indicates active listening and processing, in the middle of mentally forming a response. a few moments later, he's actually ready to answer and moves forward accordingly. the pucker itself is a tad too pronounced to qualify as a twitch; try to imitate it yourself & it's clear. marc also generally keeps his face pretty still, expression controlled and muscles relaxed or taut depending on the context. out of all movement in the mouth area, leaving it slightly (contemplatively) open or a polite smile is the most common. licking & pursing is the next option which increases in frequency post-race when he's tired but at the tail end of the adrenaline rush, so still a bit jittery, fighting to focus. overall, puckering is rarely in his repertoire; negligible and the mechanical antithesis to his top preference. just watch any interview to confirm, new or old.

so this action is so obviously a kiss --- head angled in vale's direction and all. timing is the tell here since it only occurs when his periphery picks up vale's full head turn towards him. then throws it out like a reflex!

or perhaps a flicker only meant to be picked up on by the target? gestures just discreet and imperceptible enough to claim plausible deniability...im leaning towards reflex but this can't be ruled out because i just feel like people in secret relationships get a thrill out of getting away with random little things like this. so much so it becomes habitual --- a habit we've witnessed rosquez regularly indulge in. just scratching the surface...

vale biting his lip and looking marc up and down, making him nervous (x, x) marc caressing vale's hip (x) marc running his hands through vale's sweaty curls (x) + plastering a pic of this very moment on his twitter lol??? vale grabbing marc's waist (x) vale whispering 'bravo marc, bravo' only for marc to hear, derailing the poor guy's train of thought (x, x)

vale resting his hand on marc's ass as they're taking pics, done discreetly at an angle cams can't quite pick up on; a private, intimate gesture between them on the most public platform (x) not to mention all their little 'games' and the foreplay, actual sex and post-orgasmic bliss that comes along with it and they insist on making everyone's problem (x).

all these incredibly intimate touches in broad daylight, on public broadcasts, in a room full of peers and press --- so a reflexive air kiss fits right into the established pattern. you can only hide so much for so long before it starts manifesting in moments like this, intentional or otherwise.

this is also the same presscon where vale's infamous: "I think I will give to marc less kiss from now --- but in the bed remain the same," happens and marc with his face-splitting grin doubles down with a resolute 'no change, no change' right after LMAO (x). im unsure of the sequence of these two moments but either way it makes sense; marc's kiss emboldens vale or vale's kiss talk emboldens marc.

on the topic of rosquez kisses, we can't forget marc declaring that shaking hands with vale was like kissing a girl...(x)

but the thing is, to my knowledge, we have yet to see these two actually kiss. i could be wrong (in which case im happy to be enlightened with evidence) but even if we have, the point still stands in highlighting how scarce it is. especially given the odd amount of times they've brought it up, entirely unprompted. especially given who the hell we're even discussing here!

i mean these are two guys that are literally in each other's skin, fusing their essences together on & off the track. also both from places where kisses as greetings between friends, acquaintances and even strangers are culturally acceptable and common.

surely, between people so enthusiastically engaged in public displays of affection (at the very least & most optimal time being pre-divorce, peak honeymoon phase), a kiss or two to express said affections would be acceptable and even expected...so why have they never engaged?

well according to them, they do so frequently enough for vale to jokingly threaten to withhold it. therefore, we can conclude all their kissing occurs in private...apparently to the point of developing a kissing reflex that'll show up in a public presscon.

if you look at the wider context of the clip, the kiss seems purposeful --- an attempted act of comfort. we know vale's quite squeamish and it manifests in how much he's viscerally agonising over marc's pain here. as the question is posed, marc knows vale's boring into him and fidgeting because injuries make him uneasy. on top of that, it's only about to get worse as the details are laid out in all their gory glory. so it's the best time to offer some comfort and as a result, we discover that marc has a well-worn reflex in his inventory to kiss vale better...

[this angle shows how clearly they are in each other's eyeliner especially once vale leaned forward]

well, aside from one interview in spanish (x) where he fondly laughs (scrunching his eyes sweetly and all!) and says "yeah but it didn't work out as well for me [as it did for vale back then]" --- like yeah it's a little pained, sure, but fond nonetheless. but this is all he allows. which actually validates the original claim because it shows how dearly he still holds that moment with vale in his heart and that's precisely why he's rejecting the comparison.

marc is very territorial about his intimate moments with vale. an example being that total discombobulation at the implication that the 'game' between them involved anyone else (x, x). this was peak divorce, too, yet he's still shamelessly declaring i was only thinking of vale, it's our thing, just between us, and no one else is allowed into this narrative. and just one example of this 'game' happens that same weekend (misano 2019) and is so odd to outsiders that even the commentators were left speechless at their pre-race antics (meanwhile we witness the aftermath is just rosquez brazenly getting off on playing around together and making it everyone else's problem). so the journalists were trying to rationalise it in some way but marc just shuts it down and boldly stakes his claim instead LOL.

it's because the 'game' is intimate and sensual. a mating ritual, if you will. like it's actual sex. they're literally having sex on the track and they think so too.

i mean equating shaking hands with vale to kissing a girl (x) is enough to further validate this sensual lens marc views his interactions with vale through --- the most mundane handshake (that they weren't even alone for btw! (x) but the world narrowed down to just him & vale when they touched so he recalls it accordingly lol. also why marc was so taken aback at fabio being factored into the equation at all during that misano 2019 presscon) is equivalent to making a romantic move tells you exactly how he frames moments with vale who does the same (x, x). making it clear why he still refuses to entertain any comparisons.

because in his eyes, no, what happened today was nothing like 2015, actually. you have no idea what the hell we were really doing. as stated, he seriously considers it as an intimate exchange between them, and it was!! a reciprocal one at that!! marc using his crush's move on the man himself --- he was flirting & vale flirted right back by countering with his own move made just for marc.

this excerpt (x) outlines it well:

'then in Assen, [...] all during practice, Marc has been practicing this move through the chicane at the end of the lap in Assen. Valentino, having seen Marc practice this, comes up with his own move to counter it. Vale wins the race, Marc protests that the move wasn’t valid, Vale wins the protest and keeps the points. keep in mind, this whole time, their podiums still look like this,[cota 2015] this [jerez 2015], and this [assen 2015].”'

+ assen 2015 specifically gives us more of that classic pre-race foreplay and that energy doesn't wane an ounce post-climax. + special attention must be drawn to those damn podiums where marc wins/places higher most times, yet appears happier to be standing next to valentino more than anything....clearly more preoccupied with/garnering greater satisfaction from playing a good game with the guy than the win itself (and this is marc we're talking about!)*....how in those moments (like every moment ever between rosquez, good or bad, pre-/post-divorce, from presscons to parc fermes to podiums) the whole world narrows down to just them, relegating some unfortunate soul to third wheel their own damn podium LOL....it truly is their world and we're all living in it.

*and marc is hyper-conscious of valentino's enjoyment and has been as early as their first races together. over and over again in his doc he references it...curiously, he points to vale's enjoyment on the bike, meaning during the race he was gauging this. every move he made was catered to supplementing their shared enjoyment.

'The battle with Valentino was the best part of the race besides the win, I really enjoyed it!' - Marc Márquez Qatar 2014 race review (x) + in another interview, yet again, marc picking vale as the rival he'd choose to battle on the track because of how fun it is (x) + yet again, gushing about following vale around the track more than winning (x) + marc after their first race together in qatar, 2013: "the battle with valentino was very very beautiful" (x) -- again with that romantic framing!! + at 1:37 into the video, marc only starts beaming when vale declares how much he enjoyed the race (x) + post-divorce love bite incident (x); marc and vale playfully flirting over the aftermath of on-track antics as their teams are fuming behind them LMAO + marc saying following vale on the track was 'a little bit different than the other riders' (x) + of course vale has also expressed this sentiment: “I say thank you to Marc because with him in front, was a lot more easy. If not, alone was very boring. I have him, I have the image so I also enjoy, and the race was more short.” (x). and regardless of everything, vale loves being marc's rival (x) because that's who you battle it out with and, in their case, play around and have fun with on the track; who you look out for and chase. it makes him unbelievably happy! amongst many other instances, this is demonstrated best during this presscon moment ocurring a little over a month after assen 2015. we see vale smiling ear-to-ear, delighted at marc following him in q2 on his fast lap, essentially teasing/toying with him. yet all vale can do is gush about how hot & clever he finds it LMAO (+ marc's face is flushed and grinning so hard it must hurt). tells marc he can stay as close as he wants & in return merely asks for the bare minimum distance to be maintained so vale can just about concentrate. then gets all bashful after they share a look. retreats into their own little world once more, soooo giddy and giggly about it.

whenever they raced together and battled it out, marc wasn't purely concerned with beating just any opponent but instead whether said opponent was having as much fun as himself --- marc, of all people?! LOL. this is why what rosquez had was special and unique to any other respective rivalries. no wonder marc described their downfall as a couple dancing salsa together and stepping on each other's toes (x). this whole time, we witnessed rosquez partaking in an intimate dance/game they mutually enjoyed until -- as marc says is the case for all good couples -- it all unfortunately went awry.