“Point One: Marc had many crashes and could not race. Poinꦰt Two: In the pre-season we were very fast and then su✃ddenly Michelin changed the tyre and our bike was also changed completely," Puig said.

"♍We still don’t fully u🌠nderstand what happened and we will have to discuss deeply with Michelin the tyre situation.

♒"To go from being very, very fast one month ago to the situation we are in this weekend, it’s very difficult for our riders to be consistent and have confidence. Overall, we can’t be happy.”

Pol Espargaro had gone further on Sunday, putting team-mate Marquez's huge warm-up a💙ccident down to an 'external partner choice'.

Espargaro had be🍌en fastest at last month's Mandalika test, when all four Honda riders set a very strong race pace on the all-new RC213V, putting them as favourites for the race weekend.

But blistering issues due to the searing heat saw Michelin cal♏l-up a special heat-resistant tyre casing for the grand prix - not used sinc🔥e Buriram 2018 - onto which the latest compounds were attached.

While ultimate lap times were the same as the test, the unfami༒liar sti꧅ffer carcass shuffled the deck.

Ducati aꦬnd KTM appeared to take a step forward, with riders such as Jack Miller enjoying the stability of the modified casing. Yamaha and Aprilia performed roughly the same, Fabio Quartararo matching Espargaro's best test lap for pole position.

But Suzuki and especially Honda struggled for rear grip. Such issues were magnified by relying more on the front tyre to turn, causing overheatin🅠g problems.

In other words, they were suffering for both one-lap speed anꦅd race distance⛦ endurance.

By the end of Saturday, the top Honda of Marc Marquez was only 15th on the grid, after three accidents, with Espargaro directly behind and openly questioning if his front🌼 tyre could finish the📖 race.

LCR Honda riders Alex Marquez and Takaaki Nakagami, who had delivered a🐻mong the best race simulations at the test, qualified 19th aꦬnd last (24th) respectively.

Despite Rins q🌞ualifying in eighth, the tyre situation was similar at Suz🍒uki.

"With the front tyre we are on the 🧸limit," said Rins. "But when we tried the hardest compound, 🅰it was too hard."

Team-mate and former world champion Joan Mir, starting down iꦿn 18th, felt he was more likely to fall than finish.

"I’m struggling a lot to find the correct setting, the electronics, the geometry, everything. I’m almost crashing in every corner, I'm going really on the limit and I'm not able to be strong," Mir said on Saturdꦍay afternoon.

"I was struggling for rear grip with the [normal 2022] carcass. With this [modified] one, I’m struggling even more. The biggest problem is going into the corners. I don’t have gr♕ip going in fast and the rear wants 𝄹to come around.

"I will be not able to💖, in these🐼 conditions, finish the race. I think I will crash, honestly. I’m too much on the limit in every corner and like this it’s really easy to make a mistake."

A Sunday afternoon downpour and familiar wet w📖🐟eather tyres washed away such concerns for the race, but not before a lack of rear grip into corners had bitten Marc Marquez spectacularly in warm-up.

The eight-time world champion's final accident of 🌸a punishing weekend saw the rear step out at almost 200km/h on the entry to Turn 7. The resulting highside left the Spaniard unfit to race due to concussion.