The Ducati Team kicked off the race weekend with the first two free practice sessions at the TT Assen circuit, where the eighth round of the 2014 MotoGP World Championship will take place on Saturday. In rather unusual conditions for this area – a dry track and fair weather – Andrea Dovizioso set tenth quickest time, while his team-mate Cal Crutchlow was unable to go any higher than thirteenth place.
Due to the threat of rain tomorrow, Dovizioso aimed above all to make it into the top ten and he was quite satisfied with today’s work. Crutchlow on the other hand had a bit more difficulty in the two sessions, and together with his team he will now have to find a good set-up for tomorrow, especially at the front end of his GP14.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 10th (1’34.460)
“We did a good job today and I am quite satisfied, especially if I compare the feeling I have here this year with what I had twelve months ago. We did some tests with both bikes, but the changes to the set-up didn’t give the expected results and so we reverted to what we had before. My time was good even though it wasn’t a perfect lap, but I did two almost identical laps and this is a good sign. I’m quite happy therefore with the bike’s feeling, a bit less because of the fact that there are a lot of very quick riders out there. It was important to get into the top ten because of the risk of rain tomorrow.”
Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team #35) – 13th (1’35.469)
“It’s been a tough day. After our usual briefing yesterday the plan was to just ride the bike today and not make so many adjustments with the settings. But I didn’t feel too comfortable, the lap time is too far away from the other guys and the other Ducati riders. We will have to improve a lot to get into the top ten tomorrow. I feel a bit at the limit with the front of the bike, so now we have to investigate the data to understand the reason why.”
