Ducati have made no secret that their main goal for 2018 is to reduce the Desmosedici's last remaining weakness; a re♛sistance to turning during the transition from brake-to-throttle in the middle of the corner.

With last year's GP17 winning six races in the hands of title runner-up Andrea Dovizioso, the new bike is very much an eꦑvolution of its predecessor.

Dovizioso and team-mate Jorge Lorenzo each had one GP17 and one GP18 availab𒀰le to compare on day one of the Sepang test.

While the new bike doesn🔜't seem to have hit the mid-corner bullseye, Dovizioso was 'surprised' to find it helped noticeably on corner entry. And a better corner entry at least softens the mid-corner issues.

Dꦇovizioso set the second fastest l💮ap time, 0.343s behind Dani Pedrosa (Honda).

"We tried the 𝓀new bike this afternoon. We will make a better comparison tomorrow but I'm happy because already we found some better parts," Dovizioso said. "Especially in the lastᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ part of corner entry, the front is better. I'm able to enter a bit faster, this is really good and I'm surprised about that."

Asked to compare the step made with that of th🐈e first Ducati designe𒅌d by Gigi Dall’Igna, the GP15, Dovizioso replied:

"No that was bigger, but the GP14 was more difficult... but when you have a good base it's more difficult to improve the bike. For the engineers, what you have to d♏o is very very difficult. So I was a little bit surprised. Really ha🔯ppy about that, but still we have to work on the details.

"It was immediately better, but there is also a negative point like a🍌lways. So we have to 💖work and understand exactly what we can do, what margin we have with the new bike.

🅷"So the corner entry was better, and this last part with braking and when෴ I release the brake also affects the [mid-corner] turning a little bit. So the main difference is not in the [mid-corner] turning point, but [corner entry] also affects that turning point.

"That's what I felt today, but we have to confirm if it's like this, espe🎐cially at another trackꦗ."

Ducati has also added a few more ho🍌rsepower to its alreaဣdy formidable engine for 2018, but Dovizioso made clear: "The biggest thing is the corner entry".

Team-mate Jorge Lor﷽enzo was third fastest, ju𒊎st 0.032s behind Dovizioso. Testing continues on Monday and Tuesday.