At the end of a complicated test day, conditioned by a track that was initially unrideable, Andrea Dovizioso appears to be smiling, his feeling with the M1 having seemingly improved, at least for now. The Italian placed ninth by the end of the day as he continues to adapt to a bike that failed to convince him in Malaysia. Tomorrow’s work will take Dovi in a similar direction, after he rounded out day one as the second-placed Yamaha rider and the first Italian.

First time’s the charm for Dovizioso: "Pleased with how we’ve begun"

As the rider himself has said, today’s lap times are not really indicative but his initial feeling on board is positive: "I felt better today than during previous sessions. I was able to learn the track quite quickly and I’m pleased with how we’ve begun, although the times are not indicative. My feeling with the bike has improved with respect to Sepang, particularly in braking and this is important for my riding style. I’m pleased about that and now we’ll see what we can do tomorrow. It takes time to improve and adapt to the bike, to understand its characteristics. Today I tried to do all the right things when riding, the track is good for the Yamaha because it highlights braking and corner entry, though I’m still struggling a little along the straight where we feel the gap".

The track conditioned work, particularly early on

The condition of the Indonesian track conditioned the work of all riders, particularly earlier in the day, with teams having to deal with a situation that was less than ideal: "I didn’t go out this morning in the wet, the track was dirty, unrideable essentially, with a lot of soil, like a layer of it on top of the asphalt, it wasn’t simply a question of dirt. And then we had to decide whether to ride anyway while waiting for it to improve, or to wait. But those who’d seen the track didn’t want to ride, it was too dangerous if you were thinking to push".

Later, Dovi and the other riders took the decision to head out anyway: "That was the right choice, because with twenty bikes out making laps, the conditions improved quite quickly, albeit only around one narrow strip of the track. In doing that, the track became acceptable, almost normal, you could learn the lines and push a little. We’ll see if there’s a big difference between today and tomorrow, or if the track essentially stays the same. The only thing we could ask is that they try to clean the track quickly, I don’t think there’s anything else that can be done in the short term”.

Translated by Heather Watson

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