Eight time world champion Marc Marquez has been hailed as the best rider on the MotoGP grid by F1 champ Max Verstappen.

The Spaniard, who moves to Ducati's factory team alongside Pecco Bagnaia, appeared on German TV show Hangar-7 alongside Red Bull ace Verstappen, who stormed to a fourth consecutive F1 title this year - despite struggling with his car for much of the campaign. Marquez meanwhile put an injury-ravaged three years behind him after emotionally quitting Repsol Honda for the independent Gresini team - scoring four wins on his way to third in the championship with year-old machinery.

And Verstappen is confident that Marquez can now add to his six premier class world titles in 2025 with Ducati's latest Desmosedici at his disposal. The Dutchman said: "I am a big fan of MotoGP and try to watch every race that I can, I always have my tablet with me at the track. Marc is a six-time MotoGP world champion, of course he will need some time to get used to a new team, but you can always learn a lot from your teammates. I'm sure Marc will do well. He's the best on the grid."

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Verstappen also said he'd like the opportunity to try out a MotoGP bike, but joked that Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko was unlikely to be supportive of his star driver trying his hand on two wheels adding: "I would maybe be a bit old to start, but I'd love to do it one day, but it would probably be wise to start with a Moto3 or a Moto2 and then move on to a MotoGP."

Marquez meanwhile paid tribute to Verstappen's title winning campaign - which saw him forced to overcome issues with his car, and deal with teammate Sergio Perez struggling to act as a rear-gunner. Marc commented: "I follow Formula 1 in detail and this year it was really super exciting. The braking points and the cornering speed which are unbelievable. In Formula 1, everything depends on the car. In MotoGP, you can do a little with your body, what Max managed, especially in the second half of the year, was really impressive."