Franco Morbidelli feels he’s making progress up the ranks in MotoGP but concedes each step is not happenin🌟g as quickly as he would like alo🐓ngside Petronas Yamaha team-mate Fabio Quartarao.

The Italian rider has been largely overshadowed by the MotoGP rookie of the year on the other side of his team garage with the same fate occurring during qualifyin💮g at Sepang.

After the pair shared two top spots each across the four practice sessions ahead of the Malaysian MotoGP, Morbidelli briefly held provisional pole position before losing out to Quartararo while he was pushed back to third place by Monster Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales who split the Petrona𝓀s Yamaha duo.

But with his fourth front row start of the season, completinꦕg an all-Yamaha lockout in qualifying for the first time since Le Mans 2017, Morbidelli feels he’s steadily improving wi🃏th his M1 package.

“I am a guy who likes to take it step by step and co💧nsolidate every step that I do. In MotoGP it is quite tricky and difficult so I am trying to improve every time I go on track,” Morbidelli explained.

“With our team we are working very well together s🌌o we managed to do that. Of course the steps are not too fast but they are there. This is the important thing.

“Strangely we struggled on Sunday at Phillip Island and I was having many things in my mind after that. But then we started this weekend straightaway with another pace compared to Phillip Is෴land.

“I think we are where we finished in Japan so that’s a positive thing. I feel great on the bike this week🌸end and I feel strong so we will have to see what I can do tomorrow.”

Morbidelli remains 10^th in t💯he MotoGP riders’ standings and 28 points behind Cal Crutchlow in ninth place in the championship with two rounds to go starting at 🍰Sepang before the Valencia finale.