Ecstar Suzuki stand-in Danilo Petrucci surprised himself with his debut pace on the GSX-RR at Buriram, finishing only two seconds shy of the leader in MotoGP free practice one.

The Italian has been drafted in to replace the injured Joan Mir and has so far acquitted himself well with a 1’32.706 compared to fastest man Marc Marquez’ 1’30.523.

“I’m really happy that I’ve tried the Suzuki GSX-RR. I was so nervous because, you know, the bike is so different to anything I’ve been used to ride in the past, but it is such a nice bike that I enjoyed it very much,” said Petrucci on Friday morning.

“Really, I was not expecting that the bike was so good. For sure everything is really difficult because the other guys are going really, really fast, and I still need to understand how to ride the bike and adapt my riding style to it, but I’m really happy and I didn’t expect to be so fast since the very beginning.”