Much has changed for Franco Morbidelli since last year's second Qatar Mo🌠toGP race; a new (factory) team, new bike, not to mention surgically repair🅺ed ligaments in his left knee.

But,⛄ mirroring the situation of team-mate Fabio Quartararo, his race time was almost identical to 2021.

The Italian finished last Sunday's 22 laps with a time 0.126s slower than a year ago. The proble🎐m was that this year's race-winning time, by Enea Bastianini, was over 10-seconds faster.

That meant a༒lthough Morbidelli was one place better off than on the A-Spec Petronas Yamaha, in eleventh, he dropped from🦂 +5.8s to +16.7s.

After sinking from twelfth to 17th in the early stages, Morbidelli recover🦋e🔯d to eleventh place by lap 12, helped by accidents ahead, where he remained.

Like fellow factory-spec riders Quartararo (9th) and ♔Andrea Dovizioso (14th), Morbidelli was hampered by high tyre-pressure issues, in addition to the M1's known low top speed♏.

“Both riders experienced unusually high tyre pressure almost immediately from the beginning of the race. This prohibited them from b♛eing on the attack like they normally would. We will be investigating why this happened," said team director Massimo Meregalli.

Morbidelli said: “It was a difficult race. We struggled this weekend in terms of rear grip. That prevented us from having a wonderful💮 performance.

"In the race I had a really poor start. I wasn't cunning enough to make the right moves in the first laps, and I lost a lot of time. And then when I pick𝓰ed up my pace, I was not so bad.

"I was close to my maximum, that f♓elt good. The problem is that our maximum was not enough to be on top this weekend.

"But it's just the first round. We know Qatar is a particular track and a particular weekend, so we mov🌳e forward. We keep in mind the problems that we have🔴, and we'll work on them for sure.

"But we go to Mandalika with the same♏ energy as always, we will try to do a good job there, and then we‘ll see where we stand there.”

Morbidelli set the fastest Yamaha lap of the race, a fraction qu🌞icker than Quartararo, bu𒊎t it was only the twelfth best overall.

The #21's maximum speed (349.5km/h) was likew✅ise the best of the Yamahas but still only good enough for 20th out of 24 riders.

The fastest race speed was 357.6km/h by the S✅uzuki of Joan M✃ir.