Marc Marquez: I don't understand why I'm fast in MotoGP 2017

Honda overhauled its engine again over the winter, in a bid to rectify its acceleration deficit, with engineers still working to pair it with MotoGP's control electronics when the season started.

Marquez could only finish a distant fourth in the Qatar opener, but was among the quickest riders in both Argentina and America, taking pole for both races.

He crashed out from the lead of round two but dominated the Austin race and remains in touch with the battle at the front of the championship ahead of this weekend's first European race at Jerez.

"Honda is working really hard this year with the new character of the engine, to try different things because we are in a place where we need to work, but at the same time understand many things," he said.

"At the moment, honestly, I don't feel well with the bike but for some reason I'm fast.

"I hope that in the future I will be feeling better with the bike and then even be faster.

"But we're trying to understand this kind of feeling, what I have on the bike. For some reason, I don't understand why I'm fast."

Marquez's sentiment was echoed by LCR Honda satellite Cal Crutchlow, who is fifth in the championship after three rounds, two places behind the Spaniard.

Led by Marquez, Hondas filled three of the top four places at Austin, but Crutchlow said he felt the RC213V was being flattered by its riders.

"At the moment we're in a good situation, the speed's good, the bike's working well enough for us to be competitive," he said.

"The lap times are good, but we have no idea how we're doing them.

"We're still in that area of saying we don't know where the lap time's coming from.

"The bike feels quite hard work still to ride, still too many things going on but the lap times are good and we're able to get the result.

"We're getting away with a lot of stuff. At Texas, we had between us seven or eight crashes over the weekend as Honda. Yamaha had one, and it was on race day.

"We're still pushing past the limit, so this is why I say the riders are doing a good job."