Enea Bastianini’s promotion to the Ducati Lenovo squad puts him on even footing with his MotoGP title-winning teammate for 2023.

After three days on track at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia alongside Pecco Bagnaia, the Italian was looking confident as he got up to speed developing the updated Desmosedici.

“Yeah, I’m happy about these three days,” Bastianini commented after the action concluded on Sunday evening. “We are working a lot, more than always for me.

“This morning my feeling was not really good. The new bike was really difficult to push for me but at the end we have resolved a lot of problems.

“I work very well I think, also with Pecco, and my comment was really close to his one. At the end I was fast, I tried to do one time attack and was good.

“The new bike I think is really different in respect the old one, but you have to understand the strongest point and I think I have understand in the afternoon,” he said after back-to-backing both available 22 and 23 spec Ducatis. “Now is more close, in respect to the old one and I think that one of the strongest points is the change direction. Also the brake is not bad, but I felt the feeling a little bit in entry, one of my strongest point but we have other tests to do. We have Portimao and I expect some new parts to try and to understand better this bike.

While his teammate progresses from the GP22 to the 23-spec Ducati, Bastianini’s jump was a little more intense, having challenged across last season on an already year-old machine.

The potential of the old bike is on the limit,” he said of the GP21. “This one we have to explore, we have to understand when can arrive and for the moment I think we are in 70/75 per cent. But I think in Portimao we can close the gap.”