Dovizioso: New Ducati 'immediately better'

Ducati have made no secret that their main goal for 2018 is to reduce the Desmosedici's last remaining weakness; a resistance to turning during the transition from brake-to-throttle in the middle of the corner.

With last year's GP17 winning six races in the hands of title runner-up Andrea Dovizioso, the new bike is very much an evolution of its predecessor.

Dovizioso and team-mate Jorge Lorenzo each had one GP17 and one GP18 available to compare on day one of the Sepang test.

While the new bike doesn't seem to have hit the mid-corner bullseye, Dovizioso was 'surprised' to find it helped noticeably on corner entry. And a better corner entry at least softens the mid-corner issues.

Dovizioso set the second fastest lap time, 0.343s behind Dani Pedrosa (Honda).

"We tried the new bike this afternoon. We will make a better comparison tomorrow but I'm happy because already we found some better parts," Dovizioso said. "Especially in the last part of corner entry, the front is better. I'm able to enter a bit faster, this is really good and I'm surprised about that."

Asked to compare the step made with that of the first Ducati designed by Gigi Dall’Igna, the GP15, Dovizioso replied:

"No that was bigger, but the GP14 was more difficult... but when you have a good base it's more difficult to improve the bike. For the engineers, what you have to do is very very difficult. So I was a little bit surprised. Really happy about that, but still we have to work on the details.

"It was immediately better, but there is also a negative point like always. So we have to work and understand exactly what we can do, what margin we have with the new bike.

"So the corner entry was better, and this last part with braking and when I release the brake also affects the [mid-corner] turning a little bit. So the main difference is not in the [mid-corner] turning point, but [corner entry] also affects that turning point.

"That's what I felt today, but we have to confirm if it's like this, especially at another track."

Ducati has also added a few more horsepower to its already formidable engine for 2018, but Dovizioso made clear: "The biggest thing is the corner entry".

Team-mate Jorge Lorenzo was third fastest, just 0.032s behind Dovizioso. Testing continues on Monday and Tuesday.