Jorge Lorenzo ‘optimistic’ despite low-key times in testing

Jorge Lorenzo insists he is still “optimistic” despite finishing towards the lower end of the midfield during the second day of the second pre-season test at Phillip Island.

Lorenzo, who has made the switch to Ducati after nine years with Yamaha, placed only 10^th overall across Sepang’s opening test, as he adjusted to the squad’s Desmosedici.

Lorenzo finished 11^th on Wednesday when MotoGP regrouped for the second test at Phillip Island but slipped to 15^th during Thursday’s running, 1.35s behind pacesetter Maverick Viñales.

“We worked well, trying to lap with more consistency and we made some small steps forward, doing a lot of 1:30s laps,” he said.

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“Tomorrow we’ll see if we can manage to improve our pace and constantly get under the 1:30s mark.

“We tried several different set-up solutions and in any case I’m optimistic even though we are still some way behind the leaders.”

Team-mate Andrea Dovizioso fared better, placing fifth, 0.636s behind Yamaha's Viñales.

“We did several set-up tests, as scheduled, and we obtained some interesting results,” he said.

“There are some areas where we still need to work and we have to make the Desmosedici GP turn better, but today my times were quicker and we were all closer together.

“There wasn’t so much wind, the bike was a lot more stable and the set-up tests we did helped me to improve the feeling.”