Ducati Lenovo’s Pecco Bagnaia got his momentum back up and running at Barcelona with second in the Catalan Test times on Monday.

After his short-lived race day, the Ducati title-challenger was in full work mode with a raft of upgrades and items to analyse on his way to 80 laps around the 4.6km Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit. Bagnaia need the day with a 1’39.451 fastest effort, just 0.004s shy of series leader Fabio Quartararo.

“I try a lot of things today!” Bagnaia confirmed on Monday evening. “We tried different fairing, we tried forks, we tried clutch, we tried a lot of things and it was a positive test.

“I’m quite happy with the work done. We did a lot of laps, a lot of laps with used tyres and the result is positive so I’m quite happy.

“The clutch is the same but is a different setting on it and makes a bit of difference,” he continued, having struggled recently to make the lightning quick starts the Desmosedici was famed for at the start of the year. “We tested a lot of things about that because before we were one of the faster in the starts, but now we are losing time and other bikes are faster. So we are improving that area and today we did a good step in front.

Reflecting on a disappointing race day, after a promising weekend’s work, the Italian is determined to keep looking forward.

“I want to think about Sachsenring and I want to arrive to the summer break gaining points,” Bagnaia confirmed. “Then, will be difficult for sure, the duo of Fabio with Yamaha in this moment are the strongest couple but we have to recover.

“I know my potential, I know the potential on my bike and with Fabio like this, for sure this zero points cannot happen but the championship will be over when we don’t have any more possibility to win. So we will try.”