Andrea Dovizioso set fourth-quickest time in qualifying for the Aragón Grand Prix, and as a result will start from row 2 of the grid for Sunday’s race, which is scheduled to get underway at 1400 CET. This morning the Ducati Team’s Romagna-born rider was eighth-quickest in the aggregate FP1/FP2/FP3 standings and went directly through into Q2 in the afternoon. After taking part in FP4, in which he was seventh-quickest, Dovizioso took to the track for the second qualifying run and he set his best time of 1’47.819 on the first lap of his second exit.
Michele Pirro, who replaced the injured Andrea Iannone in the afternoon’s FP2 session, had a more complicated day. This morning, the rider from the south of Italy was fourteenth-quickest in the combined standings and therefore had to take part in Q1. Here, following a harmless crash during his second attempt, he was unable to go any higher than seventh place with a time of 1’49.139, finishing seventeenth overall.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’47.819 (4th)
“I am happy with the work we did today because we were able to make big improvements in my feeling with the bike, allowing me to go well in FP4, which is the session that is closest to the race conditions. We started off with tyres that had already been used in the morning, and even though they were a bit worn, I lapped in a low 1’49” in my last exit, which is very positive. Qualifying went good as well and so I want to thank my team because we’ve worked well throughout the weekend, in a difficult situation seeing as there is very little grip on the track. Row 2 is a good position for the start and tomorrow I will do everything possible to have a good race at this circuit, in particular because in the past I have never been able to get any good results at Aragón.”
Michele Pirro (Ducati Team #51) – 1’49.139 (17th)
“I lost a lot of time in FP3 this morning with a problem and unfortunately wasn’t able to improve my position. As a result I had to take part in Q1, where I tried to save the tyres hoping to pass into Q2, but unfortunately I made a mistake by pushing a bit too hard and I crashed. I feel pretty bad about it because I hoped to qualify much better than I did, but tomorrow I will try and make amends by having a good race.”
