Andrea Iannone put in a superb run in qualifying for Sunday’s Aragón GP, setting third-quickest time to line up on the front row of the grid. The Ducati Team man had finished the morning’s FP3 session in fifth place, earning himself a direct passage into Q2. In the afternoon’s FP4 run, Iannone continued to improve with fourth place overall and then in qualifying, on his second exit with a soft rear tyre, he set a time of 1’47.178 which earned him third place on the grid and a front row slot for the 23-lap race, five-tenths off Marc Marquez’s pole mark.
Today proved to be a bit more difficult for Andrea Dovizioso, who in FP3 was unable to make the best of the soft rear tyre he fitted towards the end of the session, and he finished in eleventh place, which meant he had to take part in Q1. After a good performance in FP4, in which he finished fifth, the rider from Forlì tackled the first qualifying session. Unfortunately his best time of 1’48.294, third-quickest, was not sufficient to gain entry into Q2, and so Dovizioso finished the day in thirteenth place and will have to start from row 5 of the grid.
Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team #29) – 1’47.178 (3rd)
“Today was rather a difficult day for me, but in the end also very satisfying. Before coming to Aragón, I was worried about the pain in my shoulder, but yesterday I was able to manage the situation by not using 100% of my strength, and as a result today I was able to push even harder, improving on each exit. We did an excellent job together with my team, with the intention of getting into qualifying. Tomorrow however it will be a tough race, but the positive thing is that I still haven’t used any pain-killers, and in any case I think that the Clinica Mobile will be able to help me. I want to thank the whole team and above all Gigi Dall’Igna for helping me to get this result today.”
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’48.294 (13th)
“It was a real pity today, because if we had managed to get into Q2 I think we could have been able to do a good qualifying session and get a place on the first three rows. I didn’t do a perfect lap in Q1 because in the first two corners the rear tyre gave me the impression that it wasn’t at the right temperature, even though I was sure I had bedded it in well. Sometimes you don’t get a perfect tyre, but even without this we could have got a better result even though I had the impression that my time was good enough to get into Q2. In FP4 we improved and our pace is now good enough for me to stay just behind the leading group. A better qualifying position would have been important, but now the only thing to do is to try and make up some places with a good start.”
