Marini inspired by test speed, Bezzecchi 'curious'

Luca Marini's Ducati GP22 debut in Qatar may have been a weekend to forget, 13th place from 17th on the grid, but he'll certainly be expecting a much better MotoGP qualifying at Mandalika this weekend.

That's because the Italian was fastest of all on the second day of testing at the new Indonesian track just a month ago.

Marini's lap time, of 1m 31.289s, also put the VR46 rider third on the combined timesheets, behind only Pol Espargaro (Honda) and Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), by the conclusion of testing.

"We will race here for the first time after the tests where we were particularly competitive," Marini said. "It's a particular and fast track with a fantastic home crowd."

However, Marini's race pace at the test didn't look as impressive as his time attack and - like all riders - he'll have a partial resurfacing and revised tyre allocation to contend with this weekend.

Like Pramac riders Johann Zarco and Jorge Martin, Marini is using the full GP22 engine, while factory team-mates Francesco Bagnaia and Jack Miller are on a hybrid 2021-2022 version.

On the other side of the garage, rookie Marco Bezzecchi has the same GP21 bike spec as Qatar winner Enea Bastianini (Gresini). Bezzecchi made an impressive start to his first premier-class race at Lusail, but then fell while holding 13th place, ahead of his fellow rookies.

"I am happy to back on the bike," Bezzecchi said. "In Qatar, apart from the crash in the race, we worked very well and the feelings were always positive. In Mandalika we have already done a test and it will be interesting to understand where we will start, I'm curious."

Team manager Pablo Nieto said: "[We had an] overall good test [at Mandalika] where Luca managed to be close on the flying lap and Marco finished first among the rookies. It's an important starting point for making a further step forward for the race."