Image: Supplied.

He may have set a striking pace at Sepang last month, but Ducati Team’s Jorge Lorenzo was one of many lacking outright lap-speed in Thailand last week, even trialling the older Desmosedici GP17.

Lorenzo turned laps on last year’s bike in a bid to compare it with the heavily-updated GP18, however he’s indicated he will revert to the new version – debuting additional updated aero packages – for the upcoming Qatar test ahead of round one.

“Unfortunately for me these have been three very complicated days, because I was never able to be really competitive,” Lorenzo said. “I didn’t feel at ease on the GP18 and yesterday we also had a few doubts, so we decided to do a back-to-back test with last year’s bike.

“As always happens, there are good and bad points with both versions, but at the moment it seems that the GP18 has a greater potential so we will focus on this bike in the next test in Qatar.”

Lorenzo was a lowly 22nd on the time-sheet at the conclusion of Sunday’s proceedings, however his fastest lap from Saturday saw him ranked 16th overall – far from his statement made in Malaysia – on combined times following the three days.