Both Ducati Team riders had a good qualifying session today at the Automotodrom Brno. Andrea Iannone finished Q2 in fourth place, while his teammate Andrea Dovizioso was sixth fastest in the timesheets and so both Italians will start from the second row of the grid for Sunday’s Czech Republic Grand Prix at the Moravian circuit.
Iannone was fifth quickest in the morning’s last free practice session (FP3) and Dovizioso ninth, taking both Ducati Team men directly through into the all-important second and final qualifying session (Q2).
Following FP4, which ended with Iannone in fourth and Dovizioso in fifth, the two Italians then went out on track for the 15-minute qualifying dash. They set their best times on their second exit after fitting soft rear tyres to their Desmosedici GP15 machines.
Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team #29) – 1’55.390 (4th)
“I would clearly have loved to be on the front row, but I am in any case pleased with how today went. It would have been hard to improve on my best time because I pushed really hard and was on the limit, but in any case I tried to give everything that I could. The use of a soft rear tyre here did not help us as much as you would think and it’s not actually that much of an advantage. Now it will be important to find a few tenths here and there to improve on our race pace, which is however already good if you compare it to the last few rounds. For this reason I would like to thank all the guys in the team and the engineers: here we are suffering a lot less, and we must continue to work to arrive as close as possible to the top men and put them under pressure!”
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #05) – 1’55.935 (6th)
“I am pleased to finally get back onto the second row because it’s very important in view of tomorrow’s race. On my fast lap I made a mistake that did not allow me to improve on my time, but I am pleased with the position considering the feeling I have with my bike. I couldn’t push to the limit because I was not able to be smooth out there and so tomorrow morning we will have to try and further improve the set-up of my GP15. I feel it will be an unusual race, and we will have to see how hard it will be possible to push, especially in the corners. The top guys are maybe a bit too far away from us, but I still think we can have a good race.”
