2022 Thailand MotoGP

What’s it like being Fabio Quartararo at the moment – the lone Yamaha among five Ducatis on the front two rows of the Buriram grid, splashing around outside the points for 25 laps to complete the race having scored just eight points over three consecutive Sundays?

Certainly outnumbered, like a nun in a whorehouse. Certainly outgunned, like a local warrior at the Battle of Ombdurman in 1898, when the British army killed 12,000 Sudanese for the loss of 48 of its own men. And definitely out of luck, twice knocked out of races through no fault of his own, at Assen and Aragon, then screwed by a tropical downpour in Thailand.

The British army won Ombdurman through superior technology – machine guns and artillery against spears and rifles – just like Ducati is currently steamrollering MotoGP with superior technology.