The two Ducati Team riders were once again able to make the most of the time available at the Losail circuit in Qatar, continuing set-up work on their Michelin-shod Desmosedici GP machines in preparation for the start of the championship on March 20.
Andrea Iannone completed a total of 41 laps and at the end of the day he was in second place, 0.072s off the pace of Viñales, while Andrea Dovizioso, who carried out an 18-lap long-run at an excellent pace towards the end of the session, did 46 laps to finish sixth, 0.420s behind the leader.
After tomorrow’s final day of IRTA testing in Qatar, the MotoGP riders will next meet up at the Losail circuit for round 1 in two weeks’ time.
Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team #29) – 1’55.508 (2nd)
“Today was again very positive: we are working well, getting a better idea of the tyres and the new bike and we managed to improve a bit more on yesterday. We still have to work on some aspects, but in my opinion we’ve got a very good, competitive package at this track, and there is room for improvement. I am pleased with the support that I always get from the guys in my team, and tomorrow we will continue with our work schedule. It was a pity that this evening we had to stop a bit earlier than expected: we wanted to do a long-run and it would have been great to gather some data in view of the race. Unfortunately a minor technical problem prevented us from carrying on, but we can make up for this tomorrow.”
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’55.856 (6th)
“Today was another very productive day, and I am satisfied because we were able to do a lot of set-up work on various aspects of the bike. We made some small improvements and then we went out and did a race simulation at the same time as the start of the GP. I am very happy because I managed to keep a constant pace, and I even did my quickest lap three-quarters of the way through the long-run and this, in my opinion, means that we can go even faster. We are still not completely right however, because during the simulation I could see that we have to improve some details, but in general I am really satisfied.”
