Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez isn’t unduly concerned at the pace shown by Ducati so far at the Qatar MotoG test, saying he knows that team-mate Dani Pedrosa and the Movistar Yamahas are still the people to beat.

The Repsol Honda man joked that Dovizioso and Iannone aren’t using their soft tyres as they would drop another second a lap and is acutely aware of the penalties Ducati will incur (the loss of the soft tyre option) if they win three race.

“I believe they’re not using the extra-soft tyre to avoid creating a scare, because their lap-times would quickly drop by one second,” said Marquez.

“At the end of the day, it's clear that our rivals are the Yamaha riders and Dani (Pedrosa) - they are our rivals for the championship. At some specific point, the Ducati will be there at the front but they have this 'handicap' of losing some of their advantages if they get good results, so yeah, I know who my rivals are and who I have to keep a close eye on.”

If Ducati get on the podium three times, they will first lose their two-litre fuel advantage, but boss Gigi Dall’Igna said that last year they were able to complete races using 22 litres instead of their allocated 24.

Dovizioso and Iannone have turned in all their laps on their hardest tyre, which is the Factory bike’s soft option. It will not be known how fast they are on the outright hardest tyre as used by Repsol Honda, Movistar Yamaha et al until they are able to take three wins.