A pleased and positive Pecco Bagnaia dominated the times on the final day of MotoGP testing at Jerez on Friday,

The Ducati Lenovo rider enthused openly about the GP22 and upgrades brought by the Bologna factory ahead of the winter break, having topped the standings on just his 12th lap of the morning. His 1’36.872 lap coming in just three-tenths away from the all-time circuit record at the Andalucian track, and faster than his fourth place qualifying effort from May’s round four visit.

“I’m happy,” Bagnaia said mid-way through the second day at Jerez. “We still have work to do but we are feeling great. I speak now with Jack, we have more or less the same ideas for the bike and I think that Ducati have developed already a perfect bike so I'm very happy about this.

“I said that the old bike was perfect already and we are improving this perfect bike so that thing is incredible!” he continued. “Like I say, the lap time we did and the pace we are doing with the medium tyres and with used tyres is incredible. This means that Ducati have done a really great job because to improve a bike that was already fantastic, is not easy. For next year they have a lot of things more to try but there will be something to try in Sepang.”

Ducati updates for Friday included an elongated exhaust, new fairing and of course the updated engine, with the Italian feeling the positives across the board.

“We have tried a different fairing, that is good but still we have work to do on it because it's totally changed compared to the old one and we have to understand if it could be better or not. I like it because it's more nice, but will be important to choose one for next year. For sure will be good and we need to do more laps with it but in this moment I feel good with it. Are more good things than bad things but it's not already decided. For the exhaust, we were trying different things. It's clear that Ducati always try to understand very well the situation and tested this different thing. My feeling was more or less the same but for sure at home they are working and they are seeing the data and maybe something have changed but in this moment that feeling with the new bike is good.

“The character of the engine is totally different and like always, when something is completely new, you have to understand it. Is more or less the same level of the old one but it's just the second day we are using it so we have still a margin.

“I feel very good with the work they are doing because I'm really confident, Ducati have all my trust, for the developing and I think we are telling great things, me and Jack, to Ducati to improve this bike. There are all small differences for the bike but maybe something will work well and something not. So, we are just doing laps with different things to understand also which way to follow for next year. But already I feel great so I have to say thanks to Ducati.”

The only downside to the 24-year-old’s day being the November weather, with strong winds picking up throughout the day.

“The only thing that are disturbing a lot is the wind that is not helping us. When I stopped for the lunch break, the wind was too dangerous and is not now the moment to take risk.” he concluded.