The Itali🔯an, just 19th in the world championship - then led by Fabio Quartararo - entering the summer break a year agoꦕ, began this year’s holiday period eleventh in the standings, just two places behind his team-mate.

Whether it will be enough to secure a fac🧔tory Yamaha contract extension, assuming Morbidelli wants one, is still to be rev🦹ealed.

But the former title runner-up believes the key to closing the gap to Quartararo - and beating the Frenchman in several Sunday races this seas🐽on - was to accept that it was futile to try and mould the M1 back into the smooth machine of the past.

• MotoGP ‘all about qualifying𝓀🌠 now’, ‘like F1… big problem, boring’
• Bautista:ꦿ Sepang or Buriram an ‘if’, MotoGP wild-card ‘not in my mind’
• Marc Marquez: Assen atte༒mpt ‘better’ than stoꦅpping after Sachsenring

“Halfway through last year I realised that if I wanteജd to make a step, I needed to change, not the bike,” Morbidelli explained. “So I had to completely flip around my nature, become mor🎃e aggressive, and this winter I worked more on that.

“I started this season with a different approach while riding and a different approach generally to the weekend. And that's what has been payin♒g ofꦰf to be able to extract close to the maximum potential of the bike.

“Last year it was only Fabio that was able to extract that, thi🌌s year we can also.”

Morbidelli has a best finish of fourth so far this season, compared with third fo🐓r Quartararo.