Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) smashed through the previous fastest ever lap last time out in testing, but at Buriram, the five-time Champion found it tougher going and ended up P16 overall. However, as he explains, he didn’t push for a timeattack on the final day.
“In Sepang we felt much better,”says Lorenzo. “But during these three days I didn’t feel very comfortable. Today I didn’t push to make a laptime, today it was set during a race simulation. I was reconfirming the old bike compared to the new bike.”
That he was, with one of Danilo Petrucci’s GP17s pilfered from the Borgo Panigale test rider at Alma Pramac Racing. Lorenzo says it’s helped him confirm that there are good and bad points to each bike.
“As I said in Sepang, I think each bike has some good and some bad points. It’s difficult to make a mix for the Qatar race,” begins Lorenzo. “But”, he adds, “today we saw, even if the new bike isn’t a lot better, it has more potential because there’s more room for evolution during the year.”
So the plan is a little wait and see for Qatar – also pending feedback from the team – and work on the front.
“Let’s see what the engineers do, and I think we also still need to work on the setting on the new bike,” sys the ‘Spartan’. “Especially with the front tyre, which I didn’t feel well here.”
1st March is the day the final three days of testing begin at Losail.