Franco Morbidelli was pleased to break into the top 10 with the newl⛎y-formed Petronas Yamaha SRT squad on the final day of the opening MotoGP pre-season tesღt at Sepang.

The 24-year-old Italian ended the first pre-season test of 2019 with the eighth fasteജst time and just 0.902s off the record pace set by Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci as the Petronas outfit continued its preparations for the new campaign. 

Petronas SRT replaces Tech3 a🅠s Yamaha’s B-team for 2019 and both riders enjoyed a positive three-day test, with Morbidelli experimenting with front-end set-ups on his YZR-M1 throughout Friday as he set his quickest lap time of the week. 

“We did ꦏexactly what we wanted to do, we improved the pace and the pure s♎peed, so I’m happy about that,” Morbidelli said. 

“There is still s🌸ome work to do because the Ducati seemed unreachable. But we are going forward and this isꩲ a good thing. For me [being in the top 10] is definitely a good start. 

“We know testing is not a super good indication because always something can change in the race - so it is not the bible but anyway it’s a𓆏lways good to be fast in testing.” 

Asked to highlight the weak areas he felt the team needed to improve on, Morbedelli said: “Acceleration. Acceleration, we all know is our weak point♎ but we are improving. 

“We just need to keep on working like this because we are working well with the Yamaha guys and with the other two riders. I give my feedback and help to them and hopefully altogether we ꧑can improve this bike. 

"We are already doing that, s🧜o we are improving alre🍌ady.”

MotoGP rookie Fabio Quartararo, who edged teammate Morbidelli on the se🏅cond day having been upgradꦜed to a current-spec Yamaha, wound up 16th in the timesheets. 

“It was anot♕her positive day at Sepang,” Quartararo said. “We did a pretty good la🐽p time in the morning, dipping inside 2’00, but our weak point remains that I am struggling to do a qualifying lap. 

“Despite that I am very happy because on my first ever race simulation on a MotoGP bike I felt physically really good. To me that was another step forward - with the heat here and the track t♏emperature at 60º it is very difficult - and we coped quite well. 

“In Qatar we will have to work on braking and the first turn there will be a good💯 place for that because it is really hard on the brakes. That will ཧbe our focus because in the fast corners we are in good shape.”