Marquez wants champ v champ battle with Hamilton

Five-time MotoGP World Champion, Marc Marquez, has said he would be open to challenging Lewis Hamilton to a champion v champion battle on both two and four wheels.

Hamilton is a big MotoGP fan and had a private test in 2018 on board a Yamaha World Superbike R1 at a two-day event in Jerez, alongside riders Michael van der Mark and Alex Lowes.

The Mercedes driver was also at the first race of the MotoGP 2019 season in Qatar with Silver Arrows sponsor Petronas also backing Yamaha. Hamilton’s own sponsors, Monster Energy, also sponsors the Yamaha factory team.

Hamilton has previously said he was “100 per cent” committed to riding a MotoGP bike in future in a official test.

Waiting for him is another highly-decorated racing champion in the form of Marc Marquez…

“Of course! It would be interesting,” Marquez said when asked by Sportsmail about a potential duel with Hamilton.

“Face-to-face, first an F1 car and then a motorbike because I know he is riding.

“I speak to him by social media sometimes and I know he rides a bike and rides really well. So I look forward to, at a minimum, meeting him. We were very close last year but we had compromises and couldn’t make it work.”

While Hamilton is no stranger to riding bikes, Marquez also has experience in a Formula 1 car having taken a 2012 Red Bull decked out in Toro Rosso livery for a spin.

He said: “I tested at the Red Bull Ring in a Toro Rosso car. It was a really nice experience. I drove 40 laps and it was a real test.

“The speed was there but I lack the experience. I knew the layout of the track but the braking points and downforce was the most difficult thing to understand. I could get used to it at a normal circuit, but not Monaco!”

‘To drive an F1 car at a normal circuit, it’s ok. You can find the limit but in the middle of the city, like Monaco, it is more difficult.”

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