Just as had been the case following yesterday’s first two free-practice sessions, Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden ended day 2 at the GP de la Comunitat Valenciana in ninth and tenth places, respectively, and the Ducati Team riders will start from those positions in the last MotoGP race of the season tomorrow.
Dovizioso was able to set a decent pace on both the hard and the soft rear tyre, and he was relatively pleased with his qualifying time. Hayden had a decent performance in the morning free-practice session, but after switching bikes for the afternoon, the American ended up one spot behind his teammate and will start his final race with the Ducati Team from row 4.
Ducati Test Team rider Michele Pirro suffered a particularly untimely fall in the first qualifying session and wasn’t able to advance into Q2. The Italian will start the Grand Prix from the seventeenth spot on the grid.
Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team, 9th (1:31.718)
“This is the first time we’ve been able to use the hard tyre, and we managed to do good times; I’m pleased with the lap I did, as 1:31.7 is pretty fast. I was focused and I did it alone, which is always very important. As for the race, we’ll decide tomorrow morning, but we can use either the soft or the hard. If it’s like today or even warmer, we can use the hard with no problems.”
Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team, 10th (1:31.870)
“It hasn’t been the smoothest day. For the afternoon, we switched to the second bike, which had a fresher engine in it, and although it ran a bit better, it was also different enough to affect my feeling in some places. Still, the team did a good job today. My GP13 is more comfortable than yesterday, and we fixed some problems. I thought I could go a bit faster than that, and I think I should have. I didn’t do a good fourth split on my best lap, or I would’ve been a bit better for sure. Starting tenth is certainly not easy here, but we’ll try to get a good start and do the best we can.”
Michele Pirro – Ducati Test Team, 17th (1:32.966)
“I’m disappointed because in all the sessions including FP4, I had been close to the other Ducati riders, apart from this morning when I wasn’t confident in the cool conditions. Then I fell on the second lap of Q1 when I lost the front on the uphill before the long corner. It affected my qualifying because I ruined the bike and lost a tyre, and I wasn’t able to make it into Q2. It’s a shame because I could’ve done better and maybe been with the other Ducatis. I’ll start a way back tomorrow, but I’ll try to reduce the gap a bit.”
