Obviously riders and engineers work obsessively to develop and fine-tune their machinery, but when the lights go out on Sunday afternoon the rider must ride around any problems and imperfections if he wants to win the race.

Thats why Mrquez often makes the difference when conditions are at their trickiest, usually at the beginning or end of races.

When the race starts, riders often find grip is different to how it was in practice, because the Moto2 race has made the track slippery or track temperature is different. While other riders take half a dozen laps to adjust to the conditions, Mrquez instantly adapts his cornering lines, how he uses the throttle and so on.

Its the same in the final laps, when the rider who feels happiest skating around on the brink is going to be hard to beat. Once again Mrquez feels the tyres and adjusts his bike inputs to search for what grip is left in the tyres. Then he uses all of that and a little bit more, elbows always at the ready.

Few understand this better than fellow RC213V rider Cal Crutchlow. Marc is so special he can ride around anything, so he rides around problems like theyre not there, says the Briton.

Who else can do this?

Fabio Quartararo can. Some people say the 20-year-old Frenchman rides like Jorge Lorenzo. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesnt. When theres plenty of grip he glides through the corners, but when the grip goes hes perfectly happy with the bike bouncing across the kerbs and kicking this way and that.

When will we see Quartararo and Mrquez race again? No one knows. Each passing day of the coronavirus crisis makes racing in the near future seem less and less likely. Already its difficult to see MotoGP taking to the grid before the late summer or autumn. And perhaps that possibility will seem ludicrously optimistic in the coming days and weeks.

Then once the main wave of infection has passed, which circuits, promoters, sponsors, teams and airlines will be left standing?

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