Eyes were soon on Ducati Team as MotoGP™ testing got back underway at Sepang on Tuesday, with a new fuel tank being run in order to evaluate the differences in overall weight distribution.

Team newcomer Andrea Dovizioso led the way, finishing eighth and one place ahead of teammate Nicky Hayden. The Italian’s quickest lap time of 2’02.801 was 1.2 seconds down on the fastest from Dani Pedrosa and Repsol Honda Team, although as ever in testing lap times do not provide solid pace indicators.

"My feeling with the bike has improved a little bit, but that’s quite normal and it will do kilometre by kilometre," Dovizioso, who in 2012 rode alongside Britain’s Cal Crutchlow at Monster Yamaha Tech 3, told motogp.com in a video interview.

"In comparison with the fastest time, things are looking better. We tried something with the electronics system and also carried out comparisons for weight distribution with the different fuel tanks."

2006 world champion Hayden will start his fifth season with Ducati in 2013. Left unhappy at the end of the previous Sepang test, the start of today brought with it a delay as mechanics made adjustments to the electronic mapping.

"Ducati brought a couple of things to try, mainly some changes to weight distribution, which helped make the bike a little nimbler on change of direction," the American cited. "Also, I’m able to brake better with the same amount of pressure on the lever; we still need to work on it, but anyway, it’s an improvement."

For 2013, the Italian outfit has seen Bernhard Gobmeier join in the role of General Manager for Ducati Corse. The German has already spoken widely of an ‘evolution, not revolution’ concept as the team strives to win its first world title since 2007.

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