Suzuki and Yamaha were regarded as the bik🥂es to beat for pace by the end of the opening 2020 MotoGP test, at Sepang.

Compared to their V4 opponents, the inline four-cylinder🐭 mac𓂃hines rely more on corner speed than straight-line performance and Petronas Yamaha's Franco Morbidelli confirmed they seemed to benefit from the extra grip provided by the new Michelin rear tyre.

"Especially the Suzuki" looked like the bike at Sepang, said the Itali☂an. "I can speak for us, I don't know about Suzuki, but the new tyre gives a little bit m𓆉ore grip and it fills our emptiness of grip that we had last year, so that's positive for us.

"This tyre jus♎t performs better, so we can have more edge grip and drive grip."

However, Morbidelli was more cautious in terms of the tyre degradation issues he andꦜ especially Valentino Ross෴i often suffered with at the end of races last year.

"Difficult to s🐻ay yet. I didn't try a long run, neither did Vale. Fabio did, but he had a drop..."

Morbidelli was ranked ♉;fifth after day two (+0.259s) before slipping to 13th on the final day (+0.489s) but explained he hadn’t gone for another time attack and was pleased with his pace.

"I already have good confidence with the new bike. We didn't try the 'sup🌠ersoft', we tried it yesterday just for normal working. I think that's the reason why we are not too much ahead on the timing charts.

"But pace-wise we areܫ not so far from the top guys, which I think are Rins espe🦂cially, but also the other Suzuki of Mir and Maverick [Vinales]."

Morbidelli will be the only Yamaha rider on an A-Spec machine this season with team-mate Fabio Quartararo joining Vinales and Valen🉐tino Rossi on the Factory-Spec.

Might that mean the early rounds offer Morbidelli's best chance of suc🦄cess, before the Factory bikes develop fuꦇrther?

"Well, all rounds of the year are the ones to target, but knowing that I will not have too much development on the bike - maybe - the first races of the year are the ones that I have ওto bite more, but actually I will try to bite in every race of the year," he sa꧅id.

And Morbidelli did re♋ceive som🌊e new parts at Sepang, including the carbon fibre swingarm.

"We are trying to understand which is better, carbon or aluminium, so we 🌟will have to cꦜollect some more data to understand well which one to use in the race," he said. "At the moment the carbon one is working quite well, but we will have to see how it behaves in different tracks and conditions."

The next and final chance to make such a comparison before the 🌸season begins will be at the Qatar test from February 22-24, when Morbidelli will 🍰also try and hone the braking performance of his M1.

"We will try to work a little more in the braking area in Qatar because we🌠 didn’t work too much on that here and I🧸 felt some margin to improve."

Quartararo, who will replace Rossi in the factory🥀 team in 2021, was fastest over all three days at Sepang.