The first two races can’t predict a season but the Thai and Argentina rounds were rich in omens. The most obvious being that putting the best rider on the best bike in the best team would only have one outcome.

As demonstrated by Marc Marquez’s unprecedented consecutive pole position, sprint and race win trebles.

“He was playing with us,” said new factory Ducati teammate Pecco Bagnaia, who managed rather implausibly to remain cheerful for the cameras, at least most of the time, after finishing third in each Thai race. Although the glumness crept through in the post-race press conference, where Marc and second-placed younger brother Alex hogged 90 per cent of the attention.

Pecco’s support crutch was the assertion that he had missed the finer nuances of the revised if not actually new bike in pre-season testing, while Marc had not. “We found a good set-up on Friday,” he said. But he was already behind. Now he can work on getting better.

Trouble is, so can Marc. And in any case Bagnaia has to find a way to beat Alex as well, on the Gresini satellite team, who has made a clear leap into his comfort zone switching to the GP24.

Things can change, of course. These are humans and even Marc can fall prey to human error. Pecco is right not to abandon hope just yet.

Almost everybody else, however, should probably do so.

Defending champion Jorge Martin, definitely – thanks to double (even triple) misfortune, the first being the decision to turn his back on Ducati to join Aprilia.

The other two were just crashes. First at the Sepang test, possibly a bit overkeen to get going on his new bike, where he suffered relatively minor albeit potentially troublesome right-hand fractures. The second was more serious and possibly also caused by being too headstrong. A tumble testing on a supermotard, checking to see if his newly screwed injuries would be up to the job at round one. This time he smashed his left wrist – the radius bone and also some of the small and slow-to-heal carpal bones, which include the troublesome scaphoid.

He could even be out until the start of the European season in late April, missing perhaps four races. Which would really scupper any slender hopes.

This is especially hard for him, since there are signs that the latest Aprilia, the only non-Ducati to win races last year, has taken a step forward. Not only did new factory teamster Marco Bezzecchi top the Thai tests, he was also sixth in the race and sixth in the Argentina Sprint race.

More significant still was Aprilia satellite-team rookie Ai Ogura, fresh from winning an assured Moto2 title. First time out on a MotoGP bike, the Japanese stunned everybody, finishing fourth in the Sprint and fifth on the Sunday, less than 7.5sec behind the winner. He backed it up with a strong performance in Argentina as well, though a software indiscretion by the team would later see him disqualified.

There was little encouragement for KTM, with Pedro Acosta crashing twice in the Thai Sunday race trying to regain his former status as ‘the next Marquez’, and well off the pace in Argentina. No joy either for a well-distant Maverick Vinales, who joined the beleaguered Austrian brand hoping to become the first in history to win on four different marques. Seems unlikely this year, anyway.

The most cheerful, for a change, was the Japanese faction, especially Honda, whose engine and aero improvements appear to have born fruit. Joan Mir was up to seventh in Thailand before crashing out, and Johann Zarco had an incredible front row start in Argentina, before coming home sixth in the main race. Jack Miller made a good fist of his first Yamaha ride, before crashing out in Thailand. All the Yamahas seemed to take a step backwards in Argentina, however.

Too soon to draw conclusions, after two tracks with their own peculiarities. The forthcoming US round may change things. But only behind Marc…

Who could resent it, after all he’s been through? Seldom has ‘Welcome back’ been such a welcome call.