Lorenzo: Dovizioso's advantage under braking is “too big”

Dovizioso, who has been part of Ducati since 2013, topped the opening day of the final 2017 pre-season test in Qatar - a track widely recognised as one of the best venues for the Italian marque.

Lorenzo had a reasonably strong day in fifth and said a Ducati topping the timesheets was a "good sign", even though he himself finished 0.798s off Dovizioso.

"Not so bad - we led the classification for a while, that's the first time - so we have something to celebrate. Obviously, the other other ones improved a little bit more than me on my laptime, especially Andrea, [Maverick] Vinales and some other riders.

"We are eight tenths slower than the fast one but now the first one is Ducati so that's a good sign.

"In terms of setting we're not very good for the moment, Dovi's bike is very very different so we're going to try his way to see what happens and let's see if we make a huge improvement."

Noting that he was not doing as well as Dovizioso under braking, Lorenzo admitted that was partly down to riding style - but reckoned the set-up on his teammate's bike was also playing a role.

"Still I don't find the way to profit the strong point of the bike that is stability in braking and Dovi, with his experience and his way of riding at this moment, is much better.

"I think we still are quite far from the good setting of this bike in this track. I think Dovi's is better for the moment.

"Obviously Dovi's is a hard-braking [rider], he was always like this, but I think the difference now is too big. It can be much less in the future."

Meanwhile, Lorenzo was buoyed by Ducati's advantage in straightline speed: "I saw it also in Malaysia, even more here we arrive 350 [km/h] every time, the other bikes are for the moment quite far in that area so it's a good sign.

"Unluckily, we just have one straight [here] so we also need to be fast in the corners," he joked.

Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont