Britain’s Cal Crutchlow has prophesied that Honda stablemate Marc Marquez will, bar any incidents, defend his MotoGP world title this year as he is currently so fast, he is able to simply play with his opposition.

Marquez toyed with Maverick Vinales on Saturday at the Sachsenring, buzzing past him with fractions to spare and it wound the Yamaha man up no end. Crutchlow believes that Marquez is so confident now he can so things with the RCV in every corner the rest of the Honda men would get away with once in a weekend.

"It’s the lean angle he enters the corner at, how much he closes the front tyre, how much he slides at the exit, and he stays on the bike. What he does in every single corner, of every practice, every race, me, Dani, Jack and Tito, we can probably do one corner per whole race weekend. It’s special,” gushed Crutchlow.

Vinales believes he now has to start his 2017 season from scratch after only bagging fourth in Germany and remains five points behind leader Marquez. The Yamaha man, who struggled so badly in the Sachsenring qualifying rain he had to get some binoculars to see Sunday’s start lights, had scored only 19 points from a possible 75 in the last three races.
 
The Spaniard said the second part of the season will be very much about learning what has gone wrong in the last four races, and what they need to do to improve. He added that his Assen crash was on his mind as he charged through the pack to claim fourth place but added they need to make the M1 - with its new frame - work like it did in the first part of the year.

Kevin Schwantz has waded in to the Andrea Iannone debate, saying the Italian needs to be told to get on with it and stop looking at Dovizioso and wondering what could have been. "Don't forget, they fired you, they sent you packing! You don't have that opportunity anymore, so make the most of what you've got,” said the former world champion…

Podium rookie Jonas Folger believed he had the pace to beat Marquez on Sunday and was surprised how fast they dropped Dani Pedrosa. Folger, unfortunately, fell victim to a typical Marquez turn of pace in the last two laps while a shagged tyre and a mistake and turn one didn’t help. One hell of a performance from the German, though.

By contrast, Johann Zarco had a bit of nightmare compared to the rest of his season. Starting from Belgium on the grid, the Frenchman opted for the hard rear which came good but not quickly enough but he is still in front of Danilo Petrucci and Crutchlow in the independent riders points chase.

Pedrosa suffered some unexpected tyre wear which meant he had no choice but to settle for a lonely third as Marquez and Folger cleared off into the distance. “When Jonas passed me, I tried to follow and I couldn’t keep contact. I tried to manage but when I felt the tyre was spinning too much I settled for a podium,” he squeaked.

Petrucci revealed that he had a very good offer from Aprilia to jump ship next season but decided he wanted to remain on a competitive bike. And the whopping pay rise, plus access to Lamborghinis whenever he wants, will have helped. Might not be so good when the company vehicle on offer is some awful Dyna Wide Glide Hard Soft Tail compost heap.