Today the Ducati Team faced up to a difficult qualifying session at the Sachsenring circuit in Germany, where the ninth round of the MotoGP World Championship will be taking place tomorrow.
Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow first had to tackle the Q1 session after failing to get through directly into the Top 10 following the three combined free practice runs. After setting two excellent split times on his fast lap, Crutchlow was pushing hard when he lost the front of his GP14 at the notorious Turn 11, a fast downhill right-hander, but he emerged unscathed from the crash. Cal was unable to conclude the session and he will start from fifteenth place on the grid for tomorrow’s race.
Dovizioso on the other hand managed to get through Q1 with second-quickest time, but then in Q2 he never found the right feeling with his Desmosedici and had to settle for eleventh place, which means the Italian will start from row 4.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 11th (1’22.120)
“It was a bit of a strange qualifying session for us, because I also had to do Q1. For me it was difficult to set a good time and I was unable to get the best out of the bike. I didn’t have the right feeling to be able to do a perfect lap on my own. It’s a pity about my grid position, because on this track it’s important to start close to the front. As for race pace, we’re actually not that bad but it will be important to make up some positions at the start because the track is very narrow and it becomes difficult to pass.”
Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team #35) – 15th (1’22.529)
“It was obviously a tough day, and I’m disappointed with how the qualifying went. I was doing a good lap and it looked like we were going through to Q2 but unfortunately I crashed at Turn 11 and didn’t make it. We always knew the risk with our setting, but I never had enough heat in the front tyre because we were going too slow the previous lap with other riders on the line. For the race I think we can be in a better position than what we are, but it seems that all the Ducati riders are struggling on this track, so as a team we look to progress in tomorrow morning’s warm-up.”
