Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez appears to already be in survival mode at the Argentine race as all the Hondas are struggling for grip and the Spaniard just wants to collect as many points as possible.

No-one has the pace of Maverick Vinales’ Movistar Yamaha, and fellow RC213V rider Cal Crutchlow said yesterday the bike is struggling from start to finish, every lap.

“What we did of the pre-season, and first race, and today, it looks like Maverick and Yamaha is the strongest package,” said Marquez.

“We must improve in some areas. If we improve them, we are able to fight a little bit easier, we will be able to stay there. But at the moment we are trying to push the maximum to not lose many points.”

Crutchlow admitted to being on the verge of crashing to do his flying lap in FP2 on the soft rear and joked the best part of the lap is in pitlane.

“I don't know how I stayed on. It was the limit, sure, because we need to be in the top 10, because it will rain all day tomorrow, we think,” Crutchlow said at the track last night.

“We are just fighting with the bike, we are locking the front, the rear, battling with the grip. An the moment, there is nothing we can change so much - we have a lot of work to do with the setting of the bike because we didn't really touch it so much today.

“I feel I'm riding really well, I found on the pace immediately this morning and I felt quite on the pace this afternoon, but we don't have the grip of the other guys.”