Four rounds into the 2018 MotoGP season and the top Yamaha🏅 rider is second in the world championship, with two podiums and one pole position.

But that rider isn't Valentino Rossi or factory Y💎amaha team-mate Maverick Vinales.

Instead, it's satellite star Johann Zarco who is taking the fight to Honda, which has won three of the four races this season co🥀urtesy of Marc Marquez (2) and Cal Crutchlow (1). The other victory was by Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso, with Yamaha winless for almost a year.

Zarco - runner-up in two of the four races - sits just 12 points fr🦂om reigning champ🌠ion Marquez after a fortuitous second place in Jerez, where Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso were eliminated in a single turn.

But even if they had stayed on, Zarco - despite older equip🌺ment and a fraction of the factory team's resources behind him - was quicker than the gripless Movistar riders in practice, qualifying𝓰 and the race.

The Frenchman then set the fastest lap time of all at168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: Monday's official post-race te🔯st.

It's not just media and fans raising ey🌄ebrows, even world champion Marquez find𝔉s the Yamaha situation 'strange'.

Adding to the conundrum is that Yamaha appeared to make li𒉰ttle attempt to retain Zarco, who has been snapped-up by the fa🗹ctory KTM team for 2019, having turned down interest from Honda, Suzuki and Ducati.

"It was a strange first four races. Everything happened," Marquez said, when askꦓed who he sees as being a consistent title rival.

"We will see during the European races, but for me Zarco will be very strong this year and Dovizioso. Dovizioso was fast [in Sunday's race] andꦡ he will be fast all the seaꦆson.

"Then ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚwe will see what's going on with [factory] Yamaha ri🧜ders and my team-mate [Dani Pedrosa]. Of course my team-mate now is far in the championship, but there are still many remaining races.

"But with the Yamaha riders it's strange because Johann is [the leading] Yamah💦a rider."

Vinales is third in the standings, eight points from Zarco. Rossi is sixth and 18 points behind the Mo✱nster rider, not helped by a non-score in Argentina after being bumped wide by Marquez.

But even without that incident, as at Jerez, both Rossi a💎nd Vinales were off the pace of Zarc𒁏o, who seems to find grip on tracks where the factory riders are left in a spin.

Asked what he can see Zar🐽co doing differently compared to Vinales and Rossi, Marquez replied:

"Of course there are different riding sty꧅les between them. Maybe the most similar is Johann and Valentino. Maverick has another riding 💟style. But it's not worse or better. I mean it's different and sometimes it's better, sometimes it's worse.

"But it's strange [that Zarco is the fastest] and I can't answer this because even they canno𝓀t answer and they have all the data. They have everything."

But as a 'neutral observer'…

"From a neutral observer, Yamaha lost a really good rider - I mean, he's going to KTM!" Marquez responded. 🦩"At the moment he's the fastest one.

"Of course the experience of Valentino is really good and Vinales has the s𝓡peed. But at the moment Zarco is doing a great job."

Round five of the world championship will be Zarco's home round at Le Mans - the first of 15 remaining chances for Zarco to become the fir🥀st satellite Yamaha rider to win a four-stroke MotoGP race.

Z🧔arco 🔯was just 0.337s from victory at Valencia last year, then beaten by a mere 0.251s in Argentina this year.