Jorge Lorenzo’s Ducati crew chief Cristian Gabbarini has confirmed that mid-corner speed is the main target for improvement before the start of the 2018 MotoGP season but also says the more small steps will contribute to making the Spaniard a title challenger next season.

Lorenzo has had to adapt his riding style massively as the Desmosedici is an entirely different animal to the Yamaha M1 he is used to. He has had to start using the rear brake as part of altering the way he approaches corner entry as Ducati work to make the GP17 a better package mid-corner.

“Mid-corner is the issue as it is one of the strongest points of Jorge and one of the weakest of our bike, so we are thinking that improving in that area can easily make Jorge faster and faster but there are many other areas in which we can make a small step, said Gabbarini, speaking at Motegi.

“We know very well the result come from many small steps so for sure the corner is one of the main points but we have not to focus just on this.”