Track conditions lead to Day 3 of Qatar GP action being cancelled. Riders line up on grid for tomorrow’s race according to combined free practice times: Dovizioso on row 2 and Lorenzo on row 4
The heavy rain that fell this afternoon at the Losail International Circuit made the track unfit for action today, especially because of pools of standing water in some parts of the circuit which remained for a few hours.
After postponing the start of track action several times, the Race Direction then decided to finally cancel today’s sessions in all categories.
The Qatar GP starting grid was therefore decided on the basis of the combined classification for the three free practice sessions, and so the two Ducati Team riders, Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo, will start the race respectively from rows two and four.
Tomorrow’s warm-up, extended to 30 minutes, will start at 16.50 (local time) and the opening GP of the season gets underway at 21.00.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’55.042 (5th)
“Unfortunately the conditions we encountered today did not allow us to test in the wet and not even to do the work that we had scheduled in case it was dry. In any case it was the right decision to cancel practice because today we didn’t have the conditions to lap safely with slicks. At this point, we will use the time available tomorrow in the warm-up to choose which tyre to use in the race and try and be as ready as possible.”
Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team #99) – 1’55.461 (12th)
“It was a real pity not to have been able to do any laps today, because I wanted to continue to work on the settings and improve my feeling with the bike: with these conditions however it was really not possible to go out onto the track. Now we can only make the most of the half-hour warm-up tomorrow afternoon to make a further step forward and be as ready as possible for my first race with Ducati. Let’s hope the weather is milder than today and that we can have a race in normal conditions in the dry.”
