The Ducati Team came back in action today near Chemnitz (Germany) at Sachsenring for the German Grand Prix qualifiers. After working on race pace with a focus on tyre wear in Friday’s free practice sessions, characterized by narrow gaps and concluded by both riders within the top ten, the team struggled a bit more than expected during qualifying, with Danilo Petrucci and Andrea Dovizioso respectively twelfth and thirteenth on the grid.
Petrucci, seventh in FP3 in the morning, gained direct access to Q2 but fell victim of a high-speed crash at turn 9 in the final moments, when he was posting his best partial times, after being forced to cancel his first two “time attack” attempts due to traffic. The Italian rider hurt both his left wrist and right hand and was taken to the medical center for further checks, which showed partial ligament damage with laxity in the first finger of his right hand.
Andrea Dovizioso also faced a difficult day, as he was forced to participate in Q1 after posting the 14th time in FP3. With a personal best of 1:21.105, Dovizioso missed access to Q2 by only 3 thousandths of a second.
Danilo Petrucci (#9 Ducati Team) – 1:21.486 (12th)
“Unfortunately I crashed in one of the fastest parts of the track. I lost the front as soon as I closed the throttle and in the crash I hurt both my left wrist and right hand. Luckily I don’t have any fractures but I have a big bruise and at the moment I feel quite a bit of pain, especially in the tendons of my right hand. I hope to feel better tomorrow morning. I believe we can still ride a strong race, even though starting from twelfth position makes things more complicated. Still, I want to give it my all and bring home as many points as possible to defend third place in the championship.”
Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 1:21.105 (13th)
“Today we managed to improve the feeling with the bike and the overall speed, but unfortunately not enough to gain access to Q2. It’s been a complicated day, we worked hard as usual but on this track unfortunately we struggle more than in others. To start from fifth row doesn’t mirror our potential but we simply need to pull ourselves up and try to get the best possible start and recover as many positions as we can. Weather conditions could mix things up a bit, in any case we surely won’t give up.”
The Ducati Team will resume action tomorrow, July 7th, at 09:20 (CET) for the warm-up session ahead of the race, which is scheduled to start at 14:00 local time.
