Francesco Bagnaia finds "two things that I think will help"

Francesco Bagnaia concluded a busy day at the Jerez MotoGP test just 19th on the combined timesheets, but satisfied he had found "two things that I think will help" ahead of the next round at Le Mans.

A frustrated third in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, where he was unable to pass Fabio Quartararo, the factory Ducati star planned to prioritise set-up adjustments to boost his feeling in fast corners.

However, inconsistent gusty winds forced a change of focus.

"My list was intense," Bagnaia said. "We were trying to be focused on set-up, to allow me to be more happy with my feeling on the bike in the fast corners. But with all this wind, it was difficult to understand clearly the difference."

Bagnaia and his Ducati Lenovo crew ultimately decided to revert to a standard set-up and re-test some parts the Italian said team-mate Marc Marquez had chosen earlier in the season.

"It's difficult to work on set-up like this, so we just decided to go back to the standard set-up and try the [new] items that actually Marc has been using since the beginning of the year," GPone.com quotes Bagnaia as saying. "I had taken them off because the tests in Thailand were a bit of a mess."

Despite his position on the timesheets, Bagnaia left the test optimistic.

"I'm happy with something and we will bring it in Le Mans from the start," he said. "Other things I will try again, maybe if it will be a sunny first day, maybe the swingarm. But in any case, I'm happy, because we delivered two things that I think will help."

Bagnaia wouldn’t disclose what those two things were, but revealed they are not chassis-related.

“It’s hard to say, but it’s not about the chassis," he said. "Marc, who was the most comfortable, tried it [in pre-season testing] while I didn’t because I wasn’t in the right condition to do so.

"It was right that he tried it while I concentrated on something else."

Marc Marquez was fastest at the test, although his grand prix mistake means he heads to Le Mans trailing younger brother Alex by one point in the world championship standings.

Bagnaia is a further 19 points behind in third.