Source: Supplied.

Ducati Team’s 2017 signing Jorge Lorenzo insists that setting fast lap-times isn’t high on the agenda as he continues to get to grips with the Desmosedici GP17 during pre-season testing.

He ended up eighth overall on combined times in Australia this week, 0.793s in arrears of the man who replaced him at Movistar Yamaha, Maverick Viñales. He’s been fastest at the Valencia, Sepang and Phillip Island tests.

“Today we made an important step forward to better understanding the bike, just like we did on the final day of the test in Sepang, and my lap-times improved a lot,” Lorenzo reflected. “It was a pity that we were not able to use the soft tyre this morning, when the track conditions were ideal, because I think I could have got my time down by another three-tenths.

“But as I said, for me at this moment the times are not as important as the feeling on the bike and understanding the most efficient way to ride it. For the moment we’ve still got a lot of work to do, especially to get the bike to turn in the corners. In any case, all things considered, I think that we finished this test in quite a positive way.”

Just over a tenth behind teammate Andrea Dovizioso at the conclusion of Phillip Island’s test, the three-time MotoGP world champion made a decent amount of progress at Phillip Island on Friday in terms of overall pace.