The Ducati Team riders, Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso, were both classified inside the top 10 – in eighth and tenth place respectively – at the end of the first day of free practice for this weekend’s Catalan GP at the Montmelò circuit on the outskirts of Barcelona.
Iannone finished his 45 minute run in the morning’s first session in sixth place, with Dovizioso in thirteenth, while both factory Ducati men then went on to improve in FP2 in the afternoon: Iannone set a time of 1’42.461, which was 0.749 seconds off the pace of the quickest rider Lorenzo, and Dovizioso finished with a best time of 1’42.490.
Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team #29) – 1’42.461 (8th)
“I expected to be more competitive on this circuit and not to struggle so much, but the weekend has just begun so we still have time to work. We’re mainly lacking grip and despite being all more or less in the same condition with the rear, I’m struggling a lot with the front because the bike is unable to corner well and as a result my feeling is not the best. Now we have to focus on set-up work in order to obtain some more grip and improve tomorrow.”
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’42.490 (10th)
“This afternoon we made a big improvement, and we managed to get the hard front tyre to work well, something that we were not able to do in the morning session. With the pace that we had at the end of FP2 we are not missing much to be able to stay with the frontrunners and I think I could even have done a better lap with a fresher tyre at the end of the session. Now we have to concentrate on the fine-tuning work, because there is not much grip for anyone and the difference in the race will depend on the work that we will all do tomorrow.”
