Andrea Dovizioso will start the Malaysian Grand Prix, the penultimate round of the 2017 MotoGP World Championship which gets underway at 15.00 local time (08.00 CET) on Sunday, from the front row of the grid at the Sepang International Circuit. The Italian rider set third-quickest time in Q2, after finishing FP3, which determined which riders would go through to the all-important second qualifying session, in fourth place.
It will be a second row start on the other hand for Jorge Lorenzo, who was sixth quickest in the afternoon’s Q2 session after finishing the morning’s FP3 run in fifth place.
All today’s track action took place in perfect weather conditions, with clear skies but scorching hot temperatures, which in qualifying reached 34° C (air), 47° (track) and 49% humidity.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’59.236 (3rd)
“The front row was our target and we achieved it today, but I’m even happier about our speed, which is fundamental this weekend. If you don’t have a good pace, it’s no good thinking about race strategies and we were fast in all the conditions, especially in the dry and with used tyres like this afternoon in FP4. In qualifying I did an almost perfect lap, and this gave me an immense satisfaction! We are ready for tomorrow, in any weather conditions: the bike is going really well, we are quick and this is the most important thing, because our aim is to fight for the win.”
Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team #99) – 1’59.622 (6th)
“It was a positive day, even though about four tenths were missing for me to get onto the front row. In qualifying I lapped with consistent times but I was missing a ‘demon’ lap to be able to fight for the pole position. However I’m happy, because we improved the bike a lot during the weekend and I also managed to improve my riding style, especially under braking. Tomorrow we can stay in the leading group and if we have a good pace, fight for an important result.”
