80% Ducati red was the colour of the top five after Day 1 of the Sepang test. Behind timesheet-topper Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team), Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) was the first of four Borgo Panigale machines hot on the Spaniard's heels. That makes 'DesmoDovi' a happy man after Sunday's action came to a close – happily surprised with initial GP17-GP18 comparisons.
“We tried the new bike this afternoon and had enough time to make a comparison,” explains the Italian. “We will continue this tomorrow and maybe we’ve found some better parts, especially in the last part of corner entry; the front is a little bit better and I am able to enter faster. That’s good and I am surprised.” Pushed more on that, Dovizioso is pragmatic as always: “It is not too different to last year, just the corner entry.”
So after a good start with second on Day 1, ‘DesmoDovi’ says there’s more to work on tomorrow – but reaffirmed his positivity and his improved feeling once more.
“I’m happy about the first day and the lap time,” he continues, “and we started like in the race last year. I was very competitive and we’ve improved the feeling more with this bike. We still need to understand this bike, but I’m really happy about this.”