Enea Bastianini bettered Saturday’s fourth place by setting an all-new, albeit unofficial, fastest ever MotoGP lap of the Sepang Circuit on Sunday.

The Gresini rider was certainly feeling comfortable and making the most of his GP21 Ducati in Malaysia as he swept Aleix Espargaro off the top of the standings - the Aprilia rider himself having just broken Danilo Petrucci’s overall two-wheel benchmark from 2019 - thanks to a 1’58.131 lap on just his 13th of the morning. A last-corner mistake prevented him from breaking into the 1’57s but the time was unmatched for the remainder of the day.

With temperatures rising, a second attempt at time attacks was scheduled for later in the day but the rains had other ideas. A tropical storm saturated the track in the early afternoon, with wet set up the order of the final hours for the riders willing to brave the conditions.

Despite only completing 25 laps on day two, the Italian was pleased with the work undertaken and the progress made, especially with qualifying performance being his weakest issue last season.

“I'm happy about these two days of test,” Bastianini said from the Malaysian paddock. “Yesterday I work with the team to do some laps with the new bike and to adapt my style a little bit to the '21 bike.

“I'm happy about today because I am first. Is a spectacular result but is a good day with the '21 bike, it's a very good bike!

“I did only one time attack because I stay faster and was a risk to try other. At the end I'm happy because I stay fast more in respect to last year, because you know, always in qualifying is a disaster for me but with this bike it's better. The classification is very close, there are ten riders in 0.2s, is nothing!

“When I try for the first time in Jerez this bike I have smile inside my helmet because it's fantastic," he confirmed. "You can do all, also after five laps I have a fantastic feeling, in respect my ’19 and here the impression stayed the same. I was fast from the start yesterday and now also with the soft tyre, because soft tyre always for me it's difficult to go fast like other riders but here I did a good lap and this is important.

“Last year Pecco, especially during the last part of the season, was really fast with this bike. The 2022 bikes for the moment is very similar from my one and for me can be not a really big problem, especially during the first five or six races. After I don't know if Gigi [Dall’Igna] want to demonstrate something more but we will see during the season.”

With three Ducatis inside the top six, thanks to Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia in third and sixth respectively, the Desmosedici power was well on display at Sepang.

“Now is only the test and the '22 bike for me can do better than what we see today,” the 24-year-old forewarned. “Yesterday was not really fast but today was better. I see Jack [Miller] on the track, I see Martin, and I think is also a very good bike, but you know the first five races we can be competitive like the '22 bike.”

The Italian also admitted the work needed to improve in qualifying was “half and half” him and the bike.

“Especially for me it was important today to do the good lap time with the soft rear tyre because always for me the qualifying was a disaster," Bastianini admitted. "But now with this bike it's more easy to do. It's really important that also it's very stable with the soft.

“It's important to be fast also during the test but for the moment it's too early,” he continued, on his predictions for the coming year. "My objective for the season for the moment is to be on the top five because we can do this. We are faster, the Gresini team is fantastic and also we have some Ducati guys, very competitive and we are ready. We are ready to do this. Now we go in Mandalika, is a new track for everybody and we see what's happening there.”