Alex Marquez has revealed that brother Marc has said he won’t be giving him much in the way of tips as he is already fast enough. Marquez Jr, who will ride alongside the multiple champion at Repsol Honda next season, said: “I tried to get some tips from him, but he told me that he would tell me very little, because he saw that I was fast in several corners.”

Cal Crutchlow, who was passed over for the factory ride, believes that Jorge Lorenzo would have eventually come good on the Honda as it takes time to figure it out. Crutchlow is still miffed that the mechanics that were removed from his garage and installed in Lorenzo’s aren’t being given back - even though Crutchlow says he will be closest to Marc Marquez in terms of results next year.

After his surgery, the reigning champion should be fit enough to take part in the Sepang test next Februaru but won’t be 100 per cent until the start of the season. Which gives everyone else a chance then…

Speculation is rife that Honda is planning to ditch Repsol as title sponsor after 26 years as it’s all a bit too Spanish. The team is based in Spain, has two Spanish riders for 2020, the manager is Spanish.

Aleix Espargaro has revealed he wants to be like Andrea Dovizioso and shape the Aprilia into a race winner in the same way the Italian did with Ducati. Espargaro believes it takes a few years to get right into a bike’s development and factories change riders too often.

Wunderkind Fabio Quartararo has said he was motivated by naysayers at the start of the 2019 MotoGP season who were of the opinion he didn’t deserve the Petronas Yamaha slot. The Frenchman wanted to stick a finger up at his critics and did exactly that. Quartararo is at the top of the list to replace Valentino Rossi in the works team when The Doctor retires.

Rossi, meanwhile, will swap places with Lewis Hamilton on Monday when he will get a run in the Mercedes AMG W10 at Valencia while Hamilton will be allowed a wobble round on some sort of M1. It is doubtful that either will get a full-power version of their respective vehicle.

KTM boss Stefan Peirer will not be looking for any new riders when the 2021 game of thrones begins as he is happy with who he has got and is encouraged by the young talent already on the books.