Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia seemed calm and confident after Friday practice at the Sachsenring despite concluding the opening day at the base of the MotoGP standings.

“Today I just worked with used tyres I didn’t put new tyres for the time attack,” the young Italian explained simply.

“The true thing is, that with new tyres at the start of the session I struggle a bit to set a good time. It’s easy to understand that something is not working very well because the last lap, I did just one-tenth slower than the fastest lap, so they’re very, very constant with time.

“We need to improve on the first six or seven laps with new tyres, to be better, because I struggle a bit and the other ones are faster in that moment. Then we are all close - because doing 1’22.2, 1’22.3, after 23, 24 laps of tyres, is a really great pace but we need to be faster at the first part with new tyres.

“Today I was just concentrating on trying the hard front and the medium rear and they were good tyres. Tomorrow I would like to try the hard rear because I saw that Jack was very constant and fast, so I would like to try it but first of all in FP3, I will do the two time attacks that today I didn’t do.

“For sure I’m last, so I have a lot of things to learn” he joked while discussing his lack of experience at the Chemnitz track in the premier class, after last year’s cancellation due to the pandemic.

“Compared to two years ago, I found my pace is so much better so I’m not scared about the race at the moment but for sure is a track where I always struggle a lot.

“In Moto2 I did a podium in 2017 but I was struggling all the weekend, so I know how to manage the tyres in this track. For me, it’s very difficult to be fast with new tyres here so I have just to improve on that area, but I’m sure that for Sunday we will be very, very strong,” he concluded.