Britain’s Cal Crutchlow remains mystified why the 2020 RC213V refuses to work with the new Michelin rear tyre and says he and the LCR team ‘are going around in circles’ with setup every weekend.

Even though Crutchlow has gone back to using some 2019 parts on his bike, less experienced team-mate Taka Nakagami is by far and away the fastest Honda man in Marc Marquez’ absence and it could be down to the 2019 engine setup being more refined than the latest spec.

“I feel that maybe I’m not riding the best I’ve ever ridden, but that doesn’t mean I’m not trying,” said Crutchlow, speaking in Austria.

“But if I’m riding at 90 per cent, with a good bike that should still be in the top eight, then if I can drag more out of the feeling, then I ride it at 95 per cent and that’s top six.

“At 100 per cent, it’s a podium, and I feel that I am riding maybe 90-95 per cent. I can’t do any more than what I can do with the package underneath me.

We’re going round in circles with it. We can try the bike in 15 different positions and we can see on the data the bike does exactly the same thing.

“When you can more manually ride the bike, then you can bring the best out of the bike, but at the moment that’s not possible.”

Michelin introduced a new-construction rear aimed at ‘increasing performance and stability’ and it was the first change to the tyre carcass for two years. As a result, lap and race time have dropped but have cause Honda issues.

“We’re not stopping the bike, we’re not turning the bike in the right way because we’re not stopping, then we don’t finish the corner. Then again, even with the problems, the deceleration and the turning, if you have rear grip you can make up some time,” added Crutchlow.

“I don’t think it’s the tyres because everybody else has better grip with these tyres than the previous years. I think our bike is not working with this tyre for some reason, but we can’t understand why.”