Jorge Lorenzo Believes He Can Push More On Ducati

The Spaniard had the first taste of Desmosedici at the post-race test at Valencia last November. Lorenzo had a good time back then and enjoyed the GP16 on the Valencia track. But, the first day of the Official MotoGP Test 2017 was a shock for him as he finished in 17th place.

The first day of the official test was lead by Ducati test rider and former world champion Casey Stoner. Lorenzo was 1.669 seconds off the pace set by Stoner, however, on the final day he was within 0.399s of the fastest lap set by Yamaha's Maverick Vinales.

Lorenzo said about his improvement in the Malaysian test, "I am so happy because all the team is supporting me and they are faithful even with the bad start on the first day. They didn't lose the faith and finally, we get it, even faster than we expected.

"So from 1.6s to three-tenths is very good. We know we made a lap time with the hard rear tyre, we didn't use the soft one. We make a simulation, we took a lot of info for the engineers, and we know the weakest points we have to work on for the future.

"It was a big shock, the first day, and I said that maybe I needed more time than I expected. But finally after two days, big improvement. I think we are still very far from our limit, but we are already fast - which means when we get it, we will be very fast, or at least this is what I expect."

The five-time champion also said his change in riding style from Yamaha M1 is ongoing. He added, "Valencia is less braking and with my normal riding, I was quite competitive. Here, I needed to change a lot my riding to achieve good lap times.

"I was used to always being competitive and always fast with my riding, and I don't remember being 17th and being so far from the top.

"I needed to change so much my riding, but that's what happens when you change the bike and to a complex bike like the Ducati. Finally, we did it in a shorter time than we expected."