Andrea Dovizioso was fifth-quickest on the opening day of free practice action for the Czech Grand Prix, the tenth round of the MotoGP World Championship which is taking place this weekend at the Automotodrom circuit on the outskirts of Brno.
After wrapping up the morning’s FP1 session in second place, the Ducati Team’s Italian rider then set a time of 1’56.218 in the afternoon run to go fifth quickest.
Spanish team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, who was twelfth in the first free practice session, ended up fifteenth after the Mallorcan rider could only manage a time of 1’57.205 in the afternoon.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04): 5th (1’56.218)
“Today was a very prolific day of work and we were able to try a lot of things in view of the race. Our pace is good, we already have some clear ideas about the set-up and the tyres, and we’re quick. At the end of the second session we didn’t want to put on the soft tyres but we were inside the top ten anyway. Now we have to try and work to improve our race pace a bit more, but all in all I’m really happy with my first day here at Brno.”
Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team #99): 15th (1’57.205)
“It was a very complicated day for me today: I didn’t have any feeling with the front but above all I was lacking grip with the rear tyre and for this reason I’m a lot further back than I thought. During the two sessions we weren’t able to improve the bike and, despite the modifications we made, we’re still some way off the pace of the quickest riders. Maybe if I had put on new tyres at the end I could have finished the day closer to the leaders, but in any case I didn’t have either the speed or the consistency. Tomorrow we’ll make a radical change to the set-up and try and get directly into Q2.”
