QUILes SAYS 2015 ROSSI-MARQUEZ FEUD LEFT HIM IN TEARS

Newly crowned Moto3 champion Maximo Quiles says the 2015 feud between Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi affected him deeply as a young fan. Watching the two riders clash left him “angry and crying”, he recalled, because Marquez had been his idol since childhood.

“I remember 2015 very clearly,” Quiles told Motorbike Magazine. He remembers the “legendary clash” and Marquez crashing after contact with Rossi. “I remember crying under the bed there, [and] all angry under the living room table, all angry and crying, and thinking, ‘Oh, it’s nothing.’ I really got caught up in it. The truth is, he’s always been my idol since I was a kid.” Quiles was seven at the time.

The rivalry intensified during a season in which Jorge Lorenzo ultimately beat Yamaha teammate Rossi to the championship, interrupting Marquez’s run of MotoGP titles. Rossi believed Marquez had tried to help Lorenzo at the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, where Marquez did not win despite being widely expected to do so. The suspicion added to tensions that had already surfaced earlier in the year: Rossi won the Argentine Grand Prix after a late collision with Marquez, an incident that helped lay the groundwork for their animosity.

The dispute boiled over at Sepang in Malaysia. After the pair battled while Lorenzo escaped into second place behind Dani Pedrosa, Rossi appeared to kick Marquez off his bike. Rossi was penalised and had to start the season-ending Valencia Grand Prix from the back of the grid, a setback that cost him the title.

Quiles is now a mentee of Marquez, and his own career will bring him into closer contact with Rossi’s racing circle. He will remain with CFMoto Aspar in Moto2 in 2027 after winning the 2026 Moto3 championship for the team. He is set to partner Celestino Vietti, a member of the VR46 Riders Academy, who is joining the Spanish outfit after racing for SpeedRS Team in 2026.