Where it all went wrong for 2020's MotoGP title favourite

Very little about 2020 has gone to form. MotoGP's wild start to its coronavirus-delayed campaign blew the doors wide open for the championship battle, after Marc Marquez broke his arm at the Spanish Grand Prix. But a double victory for Fabio Quartararo at Jerez teed him up for the title tilt all - including Marquez - thought was coming in 2020 after his sensational rookie campaign last year.

But, with just two rounds to go following Sunday's European Grand Prix, Quartararo's hopes lie in ruins after a lap one crash at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit and a maiden victory for Joan Mir opened up the gulf between the pair to 37 points.

The whole European GP weekend was a nightmare straight from hell for Yamaha, with engine penalties, COVID-affected crew, reliability woes and a general lack of pace in all conditions leading to the first race since Valencia 2007 where no Yamaha rider finished inside the top 10.

In many ways, it typified Yamaha's 2020 season - and that of previous years - in that much was expected, but very little was ultimately delivered.

Quartararo remains the rider with the most wins this year with three, followed by Petronas SRT team-mate Franco Morbidelli with two on his 'A-spec' M1. Quartararo's form around his Jerez and Catalunya victories was wildly inconsistent, with the Frenchman scoring just one further top five finish all year. That's a far cry from his 2019 campaign, when he was on the podium seven times.

Signs of the woe ahead, however, were present from Quartararo's first laps on the 2020 M1 at Sepang back in February - although the extent of the new bike's inconsistency could never have been foreseen.

"Actually, [from] my first laps with the 2020 bike in really dry conditions - the 2020 bike changed a lot from last year - I didn't really feel like the bike was mine," he said on Sunday after salvaging 14th. "When the bike is directly good from FP1, we make small changes and everything is perfect. But when you start and it's difficult, you are lost and that's what also happened today and I think not only to myself. It's really tough to understand."

Almost all manufacturers have been plagued by inconsistency this year, thanks in large part to the 2020 construction Michelin rear tyre. But the tyre is hard to blame for Yamaha's form, given the extra grip it offers should suit the inline four-cylinder bikes - Yamaha and Suzuki - with their sweet-handling chassis.

And, as has been proven by its two victories, nine other podiums and its topping all three championships currently, the Suzuki has had no such problems. The GSX-RR evidently has a very strong base set-up, relative to the rest of the pack.

Yamaha riders were critical of this mistake with the engines, with Vinales admitting on Saturday Yamaha is "throwing away" title chances every year through mistakes - 2020 being a golden opportunity to strike while Marquez was absent

As Teruel GP winner Morbidelli pointed out, when asked by Autosport why 2020 has been so inconsistent for Yamaha: "This championship is very, very difficult and very, very even, and it has been like this for every manufacturer but Suzuki. So, it means they have done a much better job than anyone else."

Valentino Rossi, who has struggled the most of the Yamaha quartet this year with just one podium to his credit on the 2020 M1, also points to the fact the rest have brought more to their packages than Yamaha has since the start of the season.

"It's true that like a lot of time happened, we are ready, we are fast at the beginning of the season," Rossi said after retiring from his first race back, following a positive COVID-19 test, with an engine issue. "And then it looks like the other manufacturers bring a lot of new things, so they need some races to fix and at the end of the championship they are very strong. But it also depends on race by race, last week Franco won and here in Valencia it's difficult for all the Yamahas."

One of the biggest issues for Yamaha has been its engine. Not only has it regularly been the slowest, it's also been fragile, with all but Quartararo losing an engine to reliability woes at Jerez and all riders being forced to run with less revs from Brno. Then, of course, it transpired the first eight engines Yamaha had built for the Jerez double-header were fitted with non-homologated valves - something, Yamaha claims, was "an internal oversight".

So, not only did Yamaha have fragile engines, it also had to remove two from each rider's allocation. This left Rossi, Morbidelli and Quartararo with just three from Jerez onwards, and Vinales with only two owing to the loss of one to unreliability during the Spanish GP. This necessitated Yamaha exceeding his allocation last weekend, netting him a pitlane start. And there's no guarantee Quartararo and Morbidelli won't suffer the same fate based on their current mileage.

PLUS: How Yamaha's engine debacle may cost it the 2020 MotoGP title

Yamaha riders were critical of this mistake with the engines, with Vinales lamenting on Saturday Yamaha is "throwing away" title chances every year through mistakes - 2020 being a golden opportunity to strike while Marquez was absent.

And the mistakes of 2020 will haunt Yamaha at least for another year. It will have to run the same engine specification next year due to COVID-19 cost-saving measures. Rossi says this is "not an excuse" for Yamaha not to improve engine performance, while Quartararo echoed Vinales' sentiments in pointing out Yamaha has to avoid "stupid mistakes".

"Well, we know that first of all we need to keep the same base [bike] because we can't make any improvement," Quartararo said, when asked if Yamaha can match Suzuki in 2021. "But let's say we need to see where we can improve because they improve every time better, [scoring] double podium, double podium, double podium, and us we are just doing Franco wins, then everybody is nowhere, then I win... it's so irregular that apart from Jerez I don't know if we make a double podium - and Suzuki only has two bikes!

"And they make double podium almost every race. We need to discuss what we need to improve and I have some quite clear ideas for some problems we've had this year and for next year to try to work better. It's not really easy, but if we can avoid stupid mistakes it will be great."

One such idea Quartararo has is if he can "use last year's bike" in 2021. Morbidelli hasn't been spared Yamaha's inconsistent form in 2021, but he remains the top scoring M1 rider since the San Marino GP. And, of course, Quartararo excelled on the 2019 'B-spec' bike in his first year. But, taking one step back to go two steps forward still doesn't seem - based on current form - like it will be enough to topple Suzuki next year: Mir and Alex Rins "look really unbeatable" right now, as Quartararo admitted on Sunday.

Quartararo's pace after he rejoined the European GP from his crash was somewhat erratic - a legacy of the crash damaging his ride height adjuster, which would keep engaging automatically. But, even without his crash, his average mid-high 1m32s pace was only good enough for sixth at best. And, even then, he thinks he'd have suffered similar tyre pressure woes to those he suffered in the Aragon GP, and which resigned Morbidelli to 11th last Sunday.

"I think we unfortunately had the pace to fight only for the fifth, sixth or seventh position, but I think that if I had been in this position we would have had front tyre problems like in Aragon," he explained. "And so I think that I would have finished like Franco. The pace was there to do P5, P6 or P7, but we would have had the same problems as in Aragon on the tyres."

"I'm just focused on what I want, [which] is to try to finish as high [as possible] in the championship. I'm feeling good in the head, just we need to be clear and we know where the problem is" Fabio Quartararo

Quartararo says his European and Aragon GPs were where he lost the championship. Intriguingly, the tyre issue at Aragon appears to stem from more Yamaha operational protocols, with the Frenchman saying on Sunday: "Aragon 1, where we had - I would not say a fight - but we wanted to start Aragon 1 with less pressure in the front [tyre]. But with the Yamaha protocol, they said no and I had the worst race of my life in Aragon."

Quartararo is now in the same position as Rins is in the championship, but both have wildly contrasting views on their hopes in the final two rounds. However, to suggest Quartararo's motivation has waned doesn't match up to the fact he picked up a broken bike and raced for two points last Sunday.

"Maybe some people thought I was not motivated because I lose many points today," he said on Sunday. "But I'm just focused on what I want, [which] is to try to finish as high [as possible] in the championship. I'm feeling good in the head, just we need to be clear and we know where the problem is. I think there is quite a lot to improve, but it's two races I want to give my best. I'm fully motivated."

The sophomore showdown between Quartararo and Mir, which was brewing just a few rounds ago, ultimately hasn't materialised, and a podium for Mir this weekend in the Valencia GP to add to his maiden victory in the European GP will crown him 2020 world champion - something that wasn't exactly on the cards after Jerez.

But the reality is Quartararo appears as if he was doomed to fail from the very beginning. Yamaha signed him up to join its factory team for the next two years in the belief he could return it to title glory.

His speed and his approach, both on track and mentally, fully vindicates Yamaha's belief. But it's clear Yamaha now needs to start making him believe in it by delivering a motorcycle capable of consistent podium finishes as Suzuki has for its champion-elect...