HONDA Racing Corporation’s Vice President has explained Marc Marquez is having a difficult season due to Yamaha’s competitiveness and the power of the Honda RC213V.

In an interview with Movistar TV before the Mugello race, HRC Vice President Shuhei Nakamoto said: “The result was not as good as we expected, he couldn’t manage the front tyre at Le Mans and for various reasons we couldn’t get a result.

 “Marc was not happy, with the machine, machine set up, engine characteristics… many things. Marc’s complaint is that there is too much torque or too much power, this we can manage! If Marc was complaining that there was not enough power, then it’s the opposite: we cant.”

Discussing the competitiveness of the Movistar Yamaha’s, Nakamoto continued: “Yeah of course Yamaha made a big step forward at Le Mans, but if the race conditions were the same as the warm up period, I think Marc would have won easily.

“He is improving, he has already changed his riding style. Once we can find a good set-up on the engine side and the chassis side, we have an opportunity to close in on and even overtake top riders.”

“Marc was second at Jerez, but he had an injury to his finger, also his race time was twenty seconds faster than last year, so our machine has improved.

“There are several reasons we could only win one race so far. We have several ideas we already applied in Mugello, and we have another idea for the next two or three races… I cannot explain the details of this! [laughs]”.

The reigning World Champion is fifth in the Championship standings and 49-points behind Championship leader Valentino Rossi on-board the YZR-M1.