The first day of free practice for the Spanish GP at Jerez de la Frontera came to a close with Jorge Lorenzo in fourth place and Andrea Dovizioso in eighth after FP2, which was held this afternoon on an almost totally dry track.
The first session in the morning had been held in wet conditions due to intermittent rain that fell on the Andalusian track throughout the 45 minutes. At the end of FP1 Dovizioso and Lorenzo were classified respectively in fourth and ninth.
In the afternoon Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso fitted soft rear tyres towards the end of the session to set fourth (1’40.291) and eighth (1’40.428) quickest times respectively.
Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team #99) – 1’40.291 (4th)
“Probably today’s was my best practice session this season, especially because the sensations in the final run with a new tyre were very good. Every time I get on the Desmosedici the feeling gets better and better and, although we still have a lot of work to do, especially with used tyres and thinking of the future, today we finished positively and I was the first Ducati rider with fourth quickest time. It’s true that we are still some way off the leaders and that tomorrow we will have to confirm that we have made a step forward, but I think that we have margin for improvement.”
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’40.428 (8th)
“It was important to do this afternoon’s session on a virtually dry track because, even though there were still some damp patches, we were able to do a good job and this helps us to be ready for tomorrow morning. Today the conditions were rather difficult and you had to try not to make any errors, but on my quick lap unfortunately I made a small mistake otherwise I would have been quicker. Despite this, my time is not bad, even though I’m struggling to be as quick as I would like in the middle of the corner. Now we’ll have to see what we can do tomorrow, when for sure we’ll find the track surface completely dry.”
