Maverick Viñales
Márquez dominated the 2018 season, in spite of the narrow time margins in the MotoGP field, increasing his number of race wins compared to the previous two championship seasons. He started the year off by narrowly falling short of Andrea Dovizioso off the final corner in Qatar, before a controversial performance resulting in three penalties and causing Valentino Rossi to crash led to Márquez being stripped of a fifth-place finish in Argentina. Following a grid penalty of three positions for impeding Maverick Viñales costing Márquez pole position in the United States.