Morbidelli ready to race, sets sights on 'podium fight'

Reigning MotoGP title runner-up Franco Morbidelli may be staying on A-Spec machinery at Petronas Yamaha this season, but the Italian has looked a match for anyone during the winter tests.

Despite limited updates fitting his older-spec bike, the Italian ace finished-up fourth quickest (just 0.140s from Ducati's Jack Miller) for ultimate lap time and equally competitive in terms of race pace.

But one area where the Yamahas and especially Morbidelli might struggle on Sunday is in terms of top speed along the 1km straight.

"I think we are ready for the first race of the season. We worked hard in testing, tried several things and then focused on setting up the bike for the Qatar track," said Morbidelli, who won three races last season.

"The set-up is never perfect, you can always find things to change and improve, but I think we have a really good base.

"To have a good race there you need to be fast, have a good pace, to be consistent and understand which is the right tyre.

"It’s hard to know from testing what the target should be, but we want to aim to be in the top-five and to fight for the podium – we think it’s possible.

"We’ll see where we are though on Sunday."

With last year's Qatar Grand Prix cancelled, Morbidelli's best Losail result in the premier-class to date is eleventh place on his Petronas Yamaha debut in 2019.

Valentino Rossi will be Morbidelli's new Petronas team-mate this season, after swapping places with Fabio Quartararo at the official team. Like Quartararo and team-mate Maverick Vinales, Rossi has a Factory-Spec M1.

Losail will then host round two of the 2021 season next weekend.