Rider: Cal Crutchlow Team: LCR Honda RC213V Winner: Czech and Australian GPs

CRUTCHLOW WAS BORN AGAIN LAST season, back up to full speed for the first time since his final term with Tech 3 Yamaha in 2013. He reckons he should have won a race back then, so it was no big surprise to MotoGP’s toughest rider that he won races in 2016.

Crutchlow scored his historic first MotoGP victory at Brno last August, almost exactly 35 years since Barry Sheene won Britain’s last premier-class GP in August 1981. Then he bettered his Brno win — which was thanks to a brave tyre choice on a damp track — with victory at Phillip Island. There he beat the world’s best on a fully dry track.

Last season Crutchlow worked out how to get the best from Honda’s highly demanding RC213V, albeit at the cost of 26 crashes. At some races he was as fast as Marquez and he was often faster than Marquez’s team-mate, Dani Pedrosa, which is why HRC got behind him and allowed him to test HRC upgrades, like the slightly revised chassis he will use again this season. Crutchlow’s 2017 chances In theory, Crutchlow should do even better in 2017, because this will be his third season on an RCV and he will get better support from HRC.