The reigning champion ended Friday practice at the Austrian track in eighth place, 1.3s down on pacesetter Andrea Dovizioso – who in turn was eight tenths up on the best non-Ducati rider.

Lorenzo was taken aback by the size of the Italian marque’s advantage, saying he had never seen anything like it in MotoGP, but added that Ducati has yet to prove itself over a race distance.

“In MotoGP I have never seen such an advantage [for one manufacturer] as Ducati has here,” said the Yamaha rider. “In Formula 1 we are more used to it with Mercedes and Red Bull a few years ago.

“If there is a circuit where Ducati can win, it’s here. It’s not a good track for Honda or Yamaha.

“But we have to wait and see. It remains to be seen if they can maintain this pace without losing grip the tyres.

“If the Ducati can keep up the pace they have shown for the whole race, it will be impossible to beat them. But the tyres degrade quite a lot on the right side, which will be important on Sunday.”

Dovizioso: Ducati gap smaller than people say

For his part, pacesetter Dovizioso warned that Ducati’s advantage may not be to last, especially with question marks remaining about tyre longevity.

“It's a good gap, but I don't think it's as big as everybody thinks,” said Dovizioso. “I think it's a little bit smaller.

“The riders that are normally in front in the race, I think they will be closer. Also, for example, Marc [Marquez] didn't test, he has the biggest margin to improve.

“For sure it's really good to be in this condition, but I'm not happy 100 percent. We have to improve the pace for the 28 laps to be really relaxed, to manage the race.”

Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont