Day 2 of pre-season IRTA testing at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar again proved to be positive for the Ducati Team, as both Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone continued with set-up work on their Desmosedici GP15 bikes, always using the hardest compound tyres available for the Italian squad.
From his eighteenth lap onwards, Dovizioso, who was constantly up at the front throughout today’s session, also experimented with a fairing that sported two aerodynamic carbon winglets, and it was on this GP15 “with wings” that he set his best time of the day in 1’54.907 on lap 33, guaranteeing him the top slot at the end of the day.
His team-mate Iannone also lapped at a good pace throughout and he set his best time on lap 16 in 1’55.104, finishing the day in third place just 13/1000ths of a second from Marquez.
Michele Pirro, test-rider for the Ducati Test Team, continued with valuable development work, testing various chassis solutions on his Desmosedici GP14.3. The rider from Puglia completed a total of 32 laps, the best of which in 1’56.476, to end day 2 of testing in nineteenth position.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’54.907 (1st), 38 laps
“I am very pleased with my time today: we worked really well and always used the hard tyre, just like yesterday. I am also happy from the point of view of our speed because we are able to be very competitive both with used tyres and with new ones. We still have to improve certain aspects, like stability under braking, and in the first part of acceleration the bike still moves a bit too much, but as for our lap speed we are at a good point. Now we’re working on fine-tuning and on race distance, because on this track the drop in tyre performance is very significant.”
Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team #29) – 1’55.104 (3rd), 46 laps
“I am very happy with the way today went, for sure it was a positive session because I improved my best time by a little bit but above all we concentrated on race pace to try and improve this aspect, which for us until the end of last year was a bit critical. We obtained a lot of useful indications, especially from the point of view of the electronics and tomorrow we will also try and do an entire simulation over race distance.”
