Both Mission Winnow Ducati riders Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci did race simulations on the second day of Sepang MotoGP testing to evaluate tyre performance in hot conditions.

Petrucci, who was promoted to the works squad after Jorge Lorenzo’s departure, put in two race runs with one at the same time as Dovizioso.

“Today, we focused on some areas in which we struggled a bit in the past, finding good solutions. Instead of just riding alone, I also managed to do a couple of longer runs together with Danilo to bring the tyres to race distance, which helped us to better simulate what happens during a GP. We still have a few components to try tomorrow, development never stops and we’ll keep looking for more ways to improve our performance,” said Dovi.

Petrucci clocked five more laps than Dovizioso over the day, putting in 65, and also took two-tenths off his best lap even though outright pace was not the focus.

“It’s been a very intense day from a physical standpoint, because we clocked a lot of laps and we even rode over the race distance in two consecutive runs during the hottest hours,” said Petrucci.

“I have to say we gathered a positive feedback, both from a technical and physical standpoint, and the team did an excellent job. A small setback prevented us from further improving our lap times, but the rankings are certainly not our priority at this point of the year.

“Compared with yesterday, we’ve been a lot more competitive with higher temperatures, which makes me really confident ahead of tomorrow.”