X-ray: Marquez's Suter Moto2

Learning in the quickest and most painful manner with some huge crashes, Marc Marquez has grown into a championship contender in his first year in Moto2. A debut win in Le Mans saw the rookie go on to win four races in a row and become a glaring orange nuisance in the championship peripherals of Stefan Bradl.

As success has gone Marquez's way there have been complaints from riders of the same chassis that this is down to Suter giving the Spaniard preferential treatment. On the flipside of this, an effort with full support coming with development work and technical assistant from the Swiss engineering house will cost a team in the region of €200,000. The Repsol-financed Moto2 outfit is likely to be investing heavily in their 18-year-old sensation for this supposed 'favouritism'.

Marquez’s Suter machine, like the others, features a dual-beam aluminum chassis and adjustable swingarm, high-grade Öhlins suspsenion and hits the scales at 135kg. Making it astonishing that the light frame of this rider can control the 130 rampaging horses.

Stepping up to the middle class as the reigning 125GP champion, Marquez has displayed a great talent whilst finding his feet in the Moto2 class and on the way to becoming a contender. Marquez has a great combination of raw speed along with the race craft of a tactician - he is a silent and aggressive assassin hidden behind a beaming smile and youthful exuberance.

Honda and the Spanish oil firm have obviously taken notice of these skills to back the young Marquez as they have a bright prospect for a MotoGP future. The world of a certain Spanish Honda rider is going to get a lot smaller when the Moto2 front-runner steps up to the premier class.

By Robin Goodwin