Franco Morbidelli was forced into 'defence mode' to salvage eleventh p💙lace on his Petronas Yamaha Sepang MotoGP🌺 debut, in Qatar.

The Italian paid the price for selecting the soft rear tyre as he dropped back from a high of eighth in the middle stages, but along the way he got to co♎mpare his M1 with the Honda RCV.

"I spent a ꦿlot of time with the Yamahas, but I also had the chance to see🐬 some Hondas and basically we are struggling in the acceleration area, the traction area, and also in top speed," Morbidelli said.

"This is the🍌 main thing where we ar♛e missing compared to them."

Morbidelli's mentor Valentino Rossi f🔴inished as the top Yamaha in sixth place, just 0.6s from vict꧒ory, with factory team-mate Maverick Vinales in seventh (+2.481s).

The Mon📖ster riders opted for medium tyres front and rear, while Morbidelli and rookie team-mate Fabio Quartararo went with a medium front-soft rear combination.

"I was feeling very strong in the beginning of the race and I was trying to man🍨age the tyre, I wasn't going at the limit," Morbidelli said.

"I think everybody wasn't pushing a🐭 lot [at the start]. But I was able to recover positions quite fast and also, when they started pushing they made '55 low andꦛ in the beginning I was making mid '55, quite easily.

"So I'm happy about that. I'm happy about the feeling I have with the bike and everything. We just didn't manage the tyre well. I had to slow down a lot and basically went into defence mode and tried🧜 to bring the bike to the end.

"Pity because I was fast also witꩲh the medium tyre, but I decided to go with the soft becaus🐼e I was a bit faster and basically it didn't pay off.

"We just have to go to Argentina ♊and ꦆsee how the level is there."

Quartararo 🌌recovered to 16th after stalling on the warm-up lap.