After the private summer-break tests at Brno, Marc Marquez is confident that Honda have finally solved the acceleration issues that have plagued him since the beginning of last year, and (in an ominous note for his rivals) that he can now stop riding just to finish races, but can feel confident of aiming to win.

Last year he struggled at this acceleration-heavy track, finishing fifth. This year, he has been strong throughout.

As his rivals have confirmed, “It looks like we don’t lose on acceleration like last year. Last year, I was losing much more. Although we are losing on other things.”

At further post-race Brno tests, the team had tried several different setting ideas aimed at this circuit, and “they did a good job”, he said.

Marquez, Austrian MotoGP 2017

By Michael Scott