MotoGP: 5 Riders with the most consecutive race wins

If the 2018 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season is an indicator, MotoGP is a hugely competitive sport with multiple riders eyeing for the top stop on the podium, making it extremely difficult for someone to secure multiple back-to-back wins in the premier class.

However, that hasn't always been the case as in a couple of instances, few riders were a class ahead of their opposition, managing to string together an array of successive victories in the premier class, and ultimately, securing the championship with a comprehensive points tally.

In this article, without further ado, let us look closer at the five MotoGP riders who managed to secure the most consecutive race wins.

Note: This list only features riders who managed to secure the most consecutive wins in the premier class (500cc and the MotoGP class).

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#5 Marc Marquez - 10 wins

At number five, it is the 2018 World Champion, Marc Marquez. The Spaniard achieved the feat of ten race wins in a row during the 2014 season, making him the only rider in the MotoGP era to feature on this list.

Driving for the factory Honda team, Marquez started the season in a spectacular fashion with a win in the opening round at Losail Circuit in Qatar. The Spaniard continued his run of form in the following races, managing to secure the top step nine more times before finishing fourth at Brno, despite starting the race from the pole position.

Marquez went on to win three more races that season to claim the championship with a massive tally of 362 points.

So far (2018 season), Marc Marquez has five MotoGP championships to his name in the six seasons that he had participated in. 2015 was the only year when the Spanish rider failed to finish on top at the end of the season.

#4 Mick Doohan - 10 wins

Mick Doohan is a five-time 500cc world champion

Mick Doohan's record of ten consecutive race wins came during the 1997 season when the Australian was in the hunt for his fourth successive 500cc world championship.

The Australian rider's win streak started from the fourth race of the season in Italy and continued for nine more races before it came to an end at the Indonesian Grand Prix. Unfortunately, Doohan finished that race in the second place, less than 0.1 seconds behind Tadayuki Okada.

The man from Australia won two more races that season and took the 500cc world championship with 340 points, some 140 points higher than the second-placed Okada.

Throughout his career, Mick Doohan won five world championships, and interestingly, all five of them came in five successive years from 1994 to 1998. Also, he is one of the riders who managed to secure the most wins in a single season.

#3 John Surtees - 11 wins

John Surtees won four 500c world championships

John Surtees' record of eleven race wins in a row came between the years 1958 and 1960.

Surtees won the last two races of the 1958 season and claimed the championship before having a perfect outing in the 500cc during the 1960 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. The British rider secured the championship in some style by winning all the 500cc races that year, taking his tally to nine successive race wins.

His last two race wins came during the 1960 season as he managed to win the first two races before losing out to Remo Venturi in the Dutch Grand Prix.

Interestingly, Surtees would have had a bigger record if only he had participated in the 1958 Swedish Grand Prix for he managed to win all the races prior to that event in that particular season.

Furthermore, John Surtees is the only motorcycle till date to win both the Formula One and the Grand Prix motorcycle racing championships. The Brit won his first Formula One title in the year 1964.

#2 Mike Hailwood - 12 wins

Mike Hailwood won four 500cc world championships

Mike Hailwood's record of twelve successive race wins in the premier class came between the years 1963 and 1964.

The British rider's first win in this unique streak came during the 1963 Belgian Grand Prix at the Spa Francorchamps Circuit. He won all the races that followed this event in 1963 to take his tally to six back-to-back wins and claimed the world championship.

Hailwood started the 1964 season the way he finished the previous season, winning the first six races of the calendar. His record came to an end at Belfast as the Briton chose not to enter the Grand Prix. Still, with seven wins from seven starts, the British rider managed to secure another world championship in Grand Prix motorcycle racing.

In his decade-long Grand Prix motorcycle racing career, Mike Hailwood won nine world championships, with four of them in the 500cc class.

#1 Giacomo Agostini - 20 wins

Giacomo Agostini won eight 500cc world championships

Giacomo Agostini takes the top stop on our list with a massive number of twenty race wins in a row. The prolific Italian rider achieved this feat in the late 1970s with the MV Augusta motorcycle.

Agostini started the 1968 season with a bang by winning the first race of the season. He continued his form and managed to win all the races that season and entered the 1969 season as a three-time 500cc world champion.

The Italian continued his spectacular run of form in the 1969 season, winning all the races barring the final two races of the season. Interestingly, Agostini sat out both these races.

His record of 20 race wins in a row would only be higher if he had raced those Grand Prix for he managed to win a host of races successively in the 1970 season as well.

Giacomo Agostini has fifteen world championships to his name, with eight of those coming in the 500cc class.