Has Aragon revealed Yamaha's true MotoGP title challenger?

Mercedes Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas' victories have been attributed to his fondness for porridge for his breakfast. After another crushing defeat to team-mate Lewis Hamilton in Portugal, he may want to consider Petronas SRT MotoGP rider Franco Morbidelli's alternative of "dynamite" after his romp to victory in the Teruel Grand Prix.

The Italian beat Suzuki's Alex Rins by 2.2 seconds having led all but the first five corners of Sunday's second Aragon outing - a crash for poleman Takaaki Nakagami on the LCR Honda clearing the way for Morbidelli.

Perhaps if the Honda rider stayed mounted, Morbidelli's afternoon might have been made a little bit more complicated. But while all were singing Nakagami's praises on Saturday following his first pole and the strong race pace he showed in FP4, Morbidelli was equally as threatening.

Missing pole by just 0.063s, Morbidelli quite happily lapped in the mid-1m48s bracket on a used medium tyre in FP4 - marginally better than what Nakagami was doing on a worn soft rear. Morbidelli was equally as strong the week before, but the warmer conditions seemed to work against Yamaha in the Aragon GP and his soft rear tyre dropped him to sixth.

He had intended to race the same compound, but made a last-minute switch to the medium compound. It would prove to be an inspired choice, as the chasing Rins on his soft rubber could only loom before fading away in the latter stages of the race.

"I felt great out there, we gambled a little bit with the tyre choice," Morbidelli said on Sunday, branding his race "a trip". "We knew we had to do something more and something a little bit strong on the point view of the tyres choice.

"We decided to go with the medium and actually it paid off because in the race it was working very well, and I was feeling great with the package. This victory goes to the team because they worked very well, they worked till late trying to sort out which was the best choice and which was the best setting to use. So, this goes to them.

"We worked very well this weekend, that was the key. We've been making laps with used tyres, we've been trying to set up the bike not for new tyres but for when the tyre was dropping and it paid off because we were 11 second faster [than in the Aragon GP] and also we did a different tyre choice, which was a little bit better for me."

Much has been made of the 'new' rear shock absorber from Ohlins which Suzuki has been using all year, and which Honda has been playing around with for the past few rounds. Morbidelli raced with it and was able to profit from the edge grip he was missing last week.

"We tried a shock this weekend and it looked that we had more edge grip," he said. "That's what we were missing last weekend and we were able - and I think this was the key - to adapt the setting very fast to this different shock."

The win puts Morbidelli "back in the game" in the championship, his deficit now just 25 points to championship leader Joan Mir on the Suzuki - whose third place put him 14 clear at the top - with three races to go. The spread across the three Yamaha riders in the standings is now only 11 following a another day of disappointment for Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales.

The difference between the 2020 M1 and last year's bike isn't dramatic, but according to Vinales - who won two races on the bike last year - the strength of the old bike lies in its ability to better use the "DNA" of the Yamaha

Quartararo on the sister SRT M1 didn't have the front tyre pressure issues which thwarted him in the Aragon GP, but he was never in the race. Having felt like he'd finally made a breakthrough with set-up in morning warm-up, he "lost everything" from his tyres early on. By lap four he was already three seconds off Morbidelli and would spend the race desperately trying to defend eighth place.

"In the race I lost everything, the feeling from the front," he said. "So, yes, not really easy and happy to leave Aragon because it was two weeks where we struggled every day and I think we need to focus now really on Valencia. The tyres were OK. Franco won and made an amazing race with the medium/medium on the Yamaha.

"So, the tyre choice was good. When I was behind, I wanted to do like I was doing in FP4, but as soon as I was opening [the throttle] I was losing grip so aggressively and this is why I was not really happy because in the morning I was so happy about the work we did, but as soon as I arrived to the race from the first lap [I had] no feeling, no grip, no traction. It's so, so strange, I have no idea why but this is strange."

Vinales had similar tyre issues, as well as chatter on the front end, which once again transformed him from genuine threat in practice to totally anonymous in the race.

"We had no grip on the tyres during all this race, I had a lot of chatter on the bike," Vinales added. "It was very complicated, but anyway the objective has been done. I took out one point from Fabio [Quartararo], this was our objective to be the first 2020 Yamaha. It's what we can do. Now the guys need to analyse for Valencia, to get the data and to be better, to be faster. That's it."

Both riders were 14.2s and 14.7s respectively behind Morbidelli at the chequered flag - or, to put into greater context, behind a 2019 bike. And it's not the first time this year Morbidelli has outshone the factory-equipped 2020 Yamaha runners on his year-old machine.

He was on course to beat both riders in the Andalusian GP before an engine issue ruled him out of a maiden podium. At Brno, he was comfortably the quickest Yamaha all weekend and finished second, while Quartararo and Vinales scrabbled for grip in seventh and 14^th. At the San Marino GP, Morbidelli - just as he did at Aragon on Sunday - seemingly cruised to victory, while poleman Vinales struggled to sixth and Quartararo crashed.

The difference between the 2020 M1 and last year's bike isn't dramatic, but according to Vinales - who won two races on the bike last year - the strength of the old bike lies in its ability to better use the "DNA" of the Yamaha.

"Basically, the DNA of Yamaha - turning and corner speed," Vinales said of the 2019 M1's benefits over the 2020 bike. "The bike of this year is more difficult, not only from my side by also for the other riders. They are also struggling with this bike. This was demonstrated in Malaysia many months ago."

Vinales claims Yamaha hasn't improved the 2020 M1 since February's Malaysia test, while Quartararo says the main issue he had at Aragon was "inconsistency" and an inability to make a big enough step forward between races in line with his rivals. And for the Frenchman, this has been a general issue of the double-headers on the same tracks this year - Jerez aside, where he took victory in both races.

"It's so difficult to say, because Franco was really consistent and he made an improvement," Quartararo said when asked by Autosport if he felt the Yamaha was letting him down.

"We made an improvement from the first week to the second, but it was little. We had no consistency, also Maverick [Vinales] the first week he was so fast, he was the man to beat but finally he finished fourth. And now he finished half a second in front of me [in the Teruel race]. At the end it's difficult to understand. When there are double races, apart from Franco - he improved a lot - but for us when there are double races, we are lost."

Quartararo feels his chances will be better at Valencia, because the M1 was strong at the November test on the 2020 Michelin tyres. But Quartararo didn't ride the 2020 bike at that test, and with Valencia a double-header, the rebound he's anticipating may not be as dramatic as hoped.

"We knew we had to do something more and something a little bit strong on the point view of the tyres choice. We decided to go with the medium and actually it paid off because in the race it was working very well, and I was feeling great with the package," Franco Morbidelli

And if we consider all of what both Vinales and Quartararo have said about the 2020 Yamaha, it all points towards Morbidelli being the Japanese marque's leading light at Valencia - for the races, but perhaps even for the championship.

"Damn, it's so funny. Yesterday I was outside of the battle. Today I'm the main guy!," he joked when asked by Autosport if Yamaha should be backing him for the title now.

"I think we all should focus in doing our job the best. There are three contenders inside Yamaha, we all three are on the top and we all three are in contention for the championship. So, I should focus for myself, I should focus on the best job I can do and the other two guys should do the same. And Yamaha should push for all three."

Between the San Marino and French GPs, Morbidelli and Quartararo scored identical results: a win apiece, one non-finish, a ninth and a fourth. Morbidelli's Aragon scorecard of sixth and first means his points haul relative to his team-mate's since September stands at 80 versus 53. Throw in Vinales' haul of 68 and you see Morbidelli is Yamaha's top rider currently, despite being third-best and fourth overall in the standings.

Consider the engine issue at the Andalusian GP hadn't happened and he took the third he was at minimum set for, Morbidelli would be second in the standings and just nine points behind Mir in the championship. And that gap might be slightly smaller had it not been for the monster Austrian GP shunt with Johann Zarco, which left Morbidelli understandably quite off-colour for the following week's Styrian race.

After the Catalan GP, Morbidelli effectively ruled out his hopes because he was the slowest Yamaha through the speed traps even relative to the already slow 2020 M1s. But not once was he overhauled by the quicker Suzuki of Rins on Aragon's lengthy back straight last Sunday, showing just how well he was riding the Yamaha through the parts of the track it excels at.

Morbidelli's Aragon win came in identical fashion to his Misano one, in that he controlled the pace from the off and absorbed huge pressure all race from behind. That's a measure of his laid back character as much as it is his talent. And it's a potent combination for someone fighting for the championship.

Vinales admitted it will be "impossible" to fight title-favourite Mir for the championship with the current Yamaha. The Japanese marque ultimately doesn't care who takes the crown, so long as they do it on an M1. Morbidelli clearly wasn't its bet for 2020, given it went back on its plans for him to race the current factory bike.

Ironically, it's this apparent lack of faith from Yamaha that may end up winning it this world championship. Morbidelli is clearly riding better than Vinales and Quartararo, and the former believes he's riding the better bike.

Morbidelli says his approach now for the Valencia/Portugal double-header will be "full attack", and after his Aragon triumph he should be charging straight into the breach with Yamaha's full support...