MotoGP world champion has not started the season well but his duel with the Italian veteran has the ingredients to become one of motorcycling’s great battles • British trio aim to close gap on MotoGP maestro Márquez

Even on a sleepy morning in Cardedeu, a village near Barcelona, Marc Márquez is on a roll. The MotoGP world champion and Valentino Rossi, his former idol turned rival, are set for one of the sporting stories of the year. A battle between Márquez, who has won the title in both his two completed MotoGP seasons, and the rejuvenated Rossi, a six-times MotoGP winner, is fuelled by brilliance, charisma, controversy and drama.

Márquez finished 35 points clear of Rossi last year, having begun with 10 straight wins, but this season is different. The 22-year-old Spanish sensation trails The Doctor, the 36-year-old Rossi, by 30 points. In three GPs so far, Rossi has won two and Márquez one, with the last race marked by their collision as the young champion crashed on the penultimate lap in Argentina. This Sunday, at the Spanish GP, Márquez and Rossi, who regard each other as kindred spirits, are expected to ramp up the intensity of a simmering duel.

Yet last Saturday, a day after this interview, Márquez fractured the little finger on his left hand while training on a dirt track. Minor surgery followed, with a titanium plate being fixed on to the finger to give him the best opportunity of racing at Jerez. Stressing that his left hand is less important when riding, Márquez remains confident he will be fit enough to race.

In Cardedeu, Márquez jumps off a ridiculously tiny 100cc bike and removes his gloves and helmet. He runs a hand through his hair, to ensure he still looks cool, and grins at the admirers rushing towards him. Márquez then flips through a countless series of selfies with smitten girls and middle-aged men.

Some of the men have won a competition to share a karting track with their hero. Márquez starts each “race” near the back and flick-flacks his small bike through the field until he shares the lead with the best amateur, always allowing an ordinary man to take the chequered flag. Even the most grizzled spectators, old bikers who need a stick to walk rather than being allowed on a motorbike, are as besotted as the girls pleading for a photograph. Márquez slips into the same routine every time, wrapping an arm around his latest fan, using his other hand to offer a thumbs-up while flashing a smile. When supporters behind a fence chant his name, Márquez runs across to them. He climbs the fence and leans over so his face can beam into yet more mobiles.

Finally, we retreat to a roof terrace. Márquez grins again when I suggest that, deep down, he must feel numbed by all the fevered strangers and selfies. He looks like he has stepped out of a boy band but there is an intelligent agility to his reply. “Of course the worst place for the most attention, and the best place too, because you feel the support, is in Spain. It’s very strong. Very intense. You also get it in Italy, France, Argentina. If you have the supporters it means you are racing fast. I understand.”

Márquez has been called “arrogant” and “insufferable” for he is young, rich and outrageously gifted. Yet he applies himself to this interview with charm and thoughtfulness. He also does not sidestep the fact some people in Spain, where MotoGP is second only to football, have turned against him, accusing him of tax-avoidance. Their disdain has unsettled Márquez.

Rossi has been even more feted in Italy and yet he was also stung by criticism and huge demands for unpaid tax at the height of his celebrity. But before we reach this more complicated terrain Márquez remembers the innocent bond that first linked him to Rossi.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Marc Márquez became the youngest ever MotoGP world champion when he won the 2013 title aged just 20. Photograph: Heino Kalis/Reuters

“When I was a small boy I had many Valentino Rossi motorbike models,” Márquez says. “I was a big fan. I like the way he rides the bike, the way he is off the bike too. Valentino was my reference, my hero and it is now a pleasure to fight with him.”

Márquez and Rossi relish “the fight” as much as the thrill of racing. “Definitely,” Márquez says, “Valentino and me have a similar mentality. When you have a fight you enjoy the race. One of the most beautiful things on the bike is the overtaking and we both like that – and winning. That’s why this season is very interesting because Valentino [on a Yamaha] is at a good level and I will come back strong [on his previously dominant Repsol Honda]. The Ducatis are also there.”

The depth of Márquez’s talent is obvious but sceptics have wondered if his impudent romp through MotoGP had been due more to Honda’s overwhelming superiority. Now Yamaha have closed the gap, Márquez will be tested. In Argentina he was put under immense pressure by the Italian wizard who devoured Márquez’s initial lead. They swapped positions a couple of times and then, as Rossi moved to the right to set himself up for a slide to the left, Márquez misjudged the hairpin. He hit Rossi’s rear and tumbled across the track at speed – leaving his foe a clear winner.

“We took a different strategy using soft tyres,” Márquez shrugs, acknowledging his fault. “For some reason our bike was not using the hard tyres well. With the hard tyre it might only be possible to finish on the podium but my thinking does not change. I want to win. So we go with the softer one. It was working with two laps to go … but Valentino was faster at the end. I still tried to beat him.”

Márquez spreads his hands and smiles, like a kid caught out in a prank. “My mentality is always to win. I never think, ‘OK I might want to finish second.’ But I can improve and maybe in the race I can adjust better.”

This is the closest Márquez comes to admitting that, sometimes, a podium finish is preferable to a devilish tilt at an unlikely victory. He is brilliant enough to conjure up such wins but a renewed Rossi presents a new challenge. Will Márquez, fifth in the championship, feel under increased pressure at Jerez?

One of the most beautiful things on the bike is the overtaking and we both like that – and winning Marc Márquez

“In one way I feel less pressure. I am 30 points behind so now the only thing I can do is improve and win. It’s the same if you are 30 or 80 points behind. You just have to win.”

There must be a chance the warmth between him and Rossi will turn icy as the season tightens? “I don’t think so,” Márquez says. “I definitely hope not. But of course if we’re fighting for the championship at the end then the relationship can have more tension. But last year I went to visit Valentino on his ranch. It’s good between us.”

His interaction with other riders can be spikier. A return to Jerez is a reminder of how, in his first Spanish GP, he collided with Jorge Lorenzo on the turn named after his countryman. Márquez was on his way to becoming the youngest MotoGP world champion. Lorenzo, who won the title in 2010 and 2012, is five years older than Márquez. He has not enjoyed racing the risk-taking tyro. Does Lorenzo actually dislike him?

“We were fighting for the championship and the tension was there,” Márquez admits. “He’s not like a friend. We don’t go for dinner or a drink. We do not have a very good relationship. But it’s OK, it’s professional.”

The last time Márquez was stretched was in 2011. In his first Moto2 season there was parity between the bikes and he lost the title by one point. “It was tough but you have to remember that after six races I was 83 points behind and I came back strong. Then I have a bad crash in Malaysia. It was a stupid crash on the first practice day. We arrive in one corner and it was the only wet part of the track. Normally they move the flags – but we four riders crash.

“I have five months with double vision. That was difficult because the doctors keep saying, ‘We are trying to manage this but we’re not sure you can continue with your career.’ I was worried and the feeling was strange. There was no pain. But every time you open your eyes you have double vision. We take a risk and have the operation. It worked well.”

Márquez rides a MotoGP bike like no one else. Mat Oxley, the motorsport journalist, has written eloquently about the way Márquez has his “bike jumping around, front and rear tyres leaving smears of rubber on the Tarmac, like a Morse code SOS. Meanwhile he is perched on top, muscles tensing and relaxing as he counteracts the forces by adjusting pressure through hands, feet and backside, all the while twitching his upper body this way and that to transfer load from one tyre to the other. It’s a delicate yet vicious show – Márquez is somewhere between ballet dancer and wrestler.”

Dani Pedrosa, his injured team-mate, suggests, “Marc always rides at the limit – it seems like he’s crashing all the time but he’s not crashing.”

Márquez uses his elbows as much as his knees to maintain his blurring balance. It was such a startling technique on the track he had to have special sliders made out of magnesium rather than plastic to strap to his elbows. “I shocked lots of people,” he says. “Before me no one use their elbows. Now everyone does. It’s incredible. You can go to a circuit like this and see children using their elbows. Maybe in seven years some kid will use their shoulder or helmet! If I’m enjoying racing the balance comes easily.”

He did not enjoy the disquiet last year when 50,000 people signed a petition urging his sponsors to withdraw after it was alleged he had moved to Andorra to avoid paying tax in austerity-ridden Spain. “I was hurt and for me the worst was people speaking without the right information. They imagine bad things about me but the only thing I did was buy a house and make the correct steps. The last four years I go to Andorra for winter conditioning. I used to stay in a hotel but now I buy a house. That’s all.”

So there is no truth in the story he is now domiciled in Andorra? “No, no. I am still living in Spain. That has not changed. I am still paying my taxes. Of course you never know in the future. If you asked me five years ago I could not imagine the life I have now.”

This might leave space for Márquez to move – just as other riders live in tax-friendly Switzerland but the experience was sufficiently scarring for Márquez to shed tears at a press conference. “I was also thinking about the double vision. It was the pressure of the moment but when I start thinking about my injury it was too much. I’m still learning on the track but also in life. We must remember I am only 22. I need to learn many things about life.”

He has learnt that assumptions and judgments will be made by people who have never met him. “Sometimes you would like it to be different but I still love this life. It was my dream when I was young. The circuit is what I expected but you don’t expect the life outside. I still keep the same friends but it’s impossible not to change your life.”

Márquez smiles with boyish charm; but he answers instantly when asked if he expects to win a third successive championship ahead of Rossi. “Of course,” he says before adding some more telling words. “I will believe that until the points say it is impossible. But Valentino will be very determined. He knows this could be his last chance. I will fight with him right to the end.”

• This article was amended on 30 April 2015 to clarify that Valentino Rossi is a six-times MotoGP championship winner.