Andrea Dovizioso will start the eleventh round of the season – the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring near Zeltweg – from the front row of the grid after today’s qualifying session. After wrapping up FP3 in third place, the Ducati Team rider from the Romagna region of Italy then went on to set the third quickest time of 1’23.515 in qualifying.
Down in twelfth place on the grid with a time of 1’23.964 can be found Danilo Petrucci, who proved to have a good pace in this morning’s FP3 session, in which he was fourth. The rider from Umbria had a harmless crash during Q2 while he was improving on his best lap and was unable to continue. As a result, tomorrow he will start the Austrian GP from the fourth row of the grid.
Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 1’23.515 (3rd)
“It was vitally important to start from the front row of the grid and this we managed to do. We are a bit far off Marquez, who set a really good time, but like him we’ve got good pace so the aim for tomorrow will be to get a good start and try and prevent him from getting away in the early laps. It’ll be a long race and I’m convinced we can play a major part up at the front”.
Danilo Petrucci (#9 Ducati Team) – 1:23.964 (12th)
“Obviously I feel really bad about the crash in Q2, especially because today we showed we had good pace. Starting so far behind will surely not help us one bit and I’ll have to try and make up some positions in the early laps. With the squad we’ve been working well, but clearly the crash has complicated things: I was pushing hard, I made an error and crashed out. Pity, but now I’m even more motivated: as I said, we’ve got a good pace, today I was also fast in the hot conditions, and this makes me confident for tomorrow”.
The Ducati Team will be back on track tomorrow, Sunday 11th August, at 09.40 CET for the warm-up session for the 28-lap race, which is scheduled to start at 14.00.
