The Italian, just 19th in the world championship - then led by Fabio Quartarar🙈o - entering the summer break a year ago, began this year’s holiday period eleventh in𝄹 the standings, just two places behind his team-mate.

Whether it will be enough to secure a factory Yamaha cont🍰ract extension, assuming Morbidelli wants one, is still to🀅 be revealed.

But the former title runner-up believes the key to closing the gap to Quartar൲aro - and beating the Frenchman in several Sunday races this season - was to accept that it was futile to try and mould the M1 back into the smooth machine of the past.

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“Halfway through last year I realised that if I🌌 wanted to make a step, I needed to change, not the bike,” Morbidelli explained. “So I had to completely flip around my nature, become more a💙ggressive, and this winter I worked more on that.

“I started this season with a different approach while riding and a different approach generally t💖o the weekend. And that's what has been paying off to be able to ex꧃tract close to the maximum potential of the bike.

“Last year it was only Fabio that 💫was able to extract🌜 that, this year we can also.”

Morbidelli has a best finish of fourth so far this seaso𒁏n, compared with third for Quartararo.