Marc Márquez doesn’t hide at all that Valentino Rossi has been an inspiration to him. He had Valentino Rossi’s bikes, okay? He had posters. I was there for the famous photo—by the way, that photo is by Jaime Olivares. He set it up, created it, and took it: when Valentino Rossi and Marc Márquez met. The pretext was Valentino Rossi’s rally cars, I think they were some Subaru Imprezas. They had the advertising from Imatra, a brand of sunglasses Valentino Rossi once launched. And since Marc was sponsored by a certain brand of electric devices, they had the brilliant idea to bring them together when Marc was a 125cc rider in 2008, while Valentino was already Valentino—multi-champion, a worldwide media star. They brought them together, and I was there for that photo. Márquez was blown away when he met Rossi for the first time. Valentino was friendly with him, as he is with everyone he meets. The kid made him laugh because he was so tiny—he carried a ton of ballast on the bike to meet the minimum combined bike/rider weight. That’s a famous photo. Márquez adored Valentino Rossi, and Márquez learned a lot from Valentino Rossi.
please i want to cry. can you imagine tiny little marc who looked not older than 10 when he was 14/15 meeting his idol who's nice to him???? who knows him???? i know he couldn't sleep that night, heart beating reminiscing of this meeting.