The first day of action for the Italian GP, round 6 of the championship schedule for this weekend at the Mugello circuit in Tuscany, came to a close with three Ducati factory riders in the top ten. The gaps in the MotoGP field were minimal, with the first sixteen riders in the standings separated by less than eight-tenths of a second.
Andrea Dovizioso placed second at the end of the two free practice sessions held today. The Italian topped the timesheets in the morning’s FP1 run with a time of 1’47.394 and was leading FP2 until a few minutes before the end, when his time was bettered by Cal Crutchlow by just 29 thousandths of a second.
Jorge Lorenzo finished in tenth place in the day’s combined standings. The Spanish rider, sixth in the morning, was unable to improve on his time of 1’47.747 in the afternoon, but in any case remained in the provisional top ten.
An excellent performance came from Michele Pirro, Ducati test-rider and entered as a wild-card for Mugello with the Desmosedici GP 2017 of the Ducati Test Team. The Italian, second behind Dovizioso in the morning’s session, finished the opening day at Mugello in fourth place with a time of 1’47.595.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’47.394 (2nd)
“We have started the weekend really well, much better than I expected, and it’s always important to start strongly in a race weekend. My feeling is good and we were able to keep a good pace even in the heat of the afternoon, but we were not as quick as we would have liked mid-corner, and this will be where we will focus our work. In any case we are really competitive, and today we also managed to try all the tyres available because it was important to have feedback for tomorrow and for the race.”
Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team #99) – 1’47”747 (10th)
“This morning, even though I was not totally at ease on the bike, I managed to set some good times. Unfortunately on the last lap, when I had fitted a new tyre, I found some traffic in the last corner and was not able to improve my lap time. In the afternoon we focussed on lapping with used tyres in view of the race, but we didn’t manage to be really quick. In general, I can’t be too satisfied because I’m still missing something in the settings to be able to ride with more confidence and set quicker times.”
Michele Pirro (Ducati Test Team #51) – 1’47.595 (4th)
“It was a positive day for me, because we managed to work well both this morning and this afternoon and we were also quick with used tyres. Unfortunately we are still struggling a bit in the third sector and so we have to focus on improving this aspect. I want to thank the team because they have given me a very competitive bike, and tomorrow we will try and take the Desmosedici as far to the front as possible.”
