When you rode the Honda did your riding become more aggressive?

Definitely, yes. The fact that I’m smooth with my movements on the bike doesn’t mean that I can’t be aggressive with my throttle and brake movements. I just try to be smooth with my body and I do whatever it takes with my right hand and wrist. If I have to be aggressive, I will be aggressive. If I have to be smooth, I will be smooth. I can change this with how I use my wrist to open the throttle and my fingers to use the brake, but I always try to be smooth with my body because that’s my nature. I have more fun riding the bike this way.

It’s true that with the Honda I had to exploit the braking more. I had to make most of the lap time on the brakes, so I really focused on that area and I took a lot of risks in that area. It seemed like the Yamaha has a bit of margin in that area.

Is the Honda more stop and go, so the different sections of the corner are more defined – braking, turn and accelerating – whereas the Yamaha segues the whole corner into one?

Well, if I look at the Honda now, it’s fast everywhere! Now they seem to have a bit of margin in braking, while now we have to take risks in braking and have to really squeeze the bike in braking. Last year I was riding a 2017 Honda, so I struggled, so I needed to really squeeze everything in braking!

You can lock the Michelin front in a straight line, how do you manage that?

I try to control the front lock, but not all the time because that way you can lose your focus too much. Sometimes we do have front lock and those are… difficult moments. Maybe with the Honda you can feel it a bit earlier.

My aim isn’t to be smooth, my aim is to be fast, so I do whatever it takes to be fast.

Is the secret with the Michelins to get through the first part of the corner, then get the load onto the rear tyre and use the rear?

Well, I didn’t come from Bridgestone MotoGP tyres; I came from Dunlop Moto2 tyres, so for me the grip I have now is a step ahead, both with the front and the rear. Everyone who raced with the Bridgestones told me the story: once upon a time you could trail brake all the way into a corner and nothing bad would happen. But I never tried those tyres, so to me the Michelin front has very good performance.

Some riders talk about using the rear tyre to turn the bike, what do you do mid-corner?

I flick it in and then I wait for the bike to turn. Especially with the Yamaha I wait naturally; I just wait for it. Then when it turns I like to keep both tyres in line and then pick up the bike nice and smoothly.

MotoGP has lower-tech traction control in the past, so how do you help the Michelin rear to drive out of corners without spinning?

Once you get a lot of wheelspin it’s difficult to recover, very difficult. So the aim is always to go not too far with it, because not only do you ruin your drive you also ruin the tyre, because it degrades a lot when it spins. So you need to be smooth in that area and you need to give grip to the bike by really picking it up onto the fatter part of the tyre. It’s a balance of lean angle, throttle degrees and so on.

Your riding technique is smooth, the Yamaha is a smooth bike and the Michelins require a smooth style – do you now have the perfect combination?

I feel that the nature of the bike and my own nature suit each other, but this doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to be fast. My aim isn’t to be smooth, my aim is to be fast, so I do whatever it takes to be fast. It’s true that on paper I’ve always been a smooth rider and on paper the Yamaha has always been a smooth bike, so it looks like we are best mates. But we need to be fast – we always need to remember we need to be fast!

Petronas SIC Yamaha

Are you still climbing a steep learning curve?

This is funny, because I start each year and at the end of the year I look back and go, wow, I’ve learned so much since last year! Now I’m a much more experienced person and a better rider, so next season it’s going to be difficult to learn as much as I did last season. Then I finish the next year and I look back and I say, wow, I’m a much better rider and a much more experienced person! I’ve found myself thinking this for the last three or four years in a row.

You never stop learning and Rossi is proof of that. Now you are both on the same bike you can look at each other’s data. That must be quite weird, because you’ve been with him since 2013 and you are the first VR66 rider to ride the same bike as him. Do you look at data together?

No, we don’t!