Jorge Lorenzo h🃏as confirmed that heꦬ does not always use an airbag system in his leathers.

Questions were raised about whether the tripl𒁃e MotoGP champion rode with the safety device, when there were no visible signs of an airbag deployment following his huge practice highside at Motegi.

While airbag systems are currently optional, they will be compulsor🍌y for all MotoGP competitors from 2018.

"Mostly, whenever I cꦯan, I use the airbag because it's safer," said Lorenzo, who has the Alpinestars Tech-Air system available. "Just in the occasions I feel I have less probability to crash, I still prefer to use without.

"But every time I try to use the airbag more and we are working for me to fe🌸el comfortable with the airbag in all the conditions in the future."

In what way does the airbag feel less꧂ comfortable?

"It has more material, more plastic inside, and it's a little bit less flexible [gesturing to his shoulder areဣa]. For other riders it's okay, for me sometimes when I feel safe enough for not crashing, I still feel better without.

"But every time I use [it] more a♊nd, as it will be mandatory in the future, I will have to get used to it for all the conditions."

Lorenzo was speaking after setting the tenth 🍸fastest time during a damp opening day at Sepang in Malaysia, meaning he will have direct access to Qualifying 2 should more rain fall on Saturday morning.

"We stopped in ﷽the afternoon because the track was getting dryer and dryer, but was not yet ready to be comfortable on the slick and we couldn't improve on the lap times this morning," explained the Movꦉistar Yamaha rider.

"The feeling today was good. I just couldn't make more laps with the soft tyre, because we decided to try the hard tyre for the race, in case there was too much 𝓰rain. I think today for the🎐 lap time it would have been better to stay with the softer one.

"I like the track, the [new] tarmac and there is no problem in the last corner. It's off-camber and on a normal track, with normal grip, it would be a big problem. But the grip is so good that even wꦰith a big [nega𝓀tive] banking there is enough grip.

"﷽The only problem is some patches of wat💟er that are difficult to dry completely. Let's see if the weather is dry tomorrow. But we can be competitive, because the grip of the track is very good."

Team-mate Vale🐽ntino Rossi was sixth quickest, courtesy of hi💦s FP1 time.