The first day of free practice for the British Grand Prix, which is being held this weekend at the Silverstone circuit, concluded with Andrea Dovizioso provisionally topping the timesheets and Jorge Lorenzo in fifth after FP1 and FP2, which were both held on a dry track surface.
The factory Ducati riders both set their best times in the afternoon session: Dovizioso with a best lap of 2’01.385 and Lorenzo with 2’01.782.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1st (2’01.385)
“I’m pleased because despite the difficult track surface conditions we were able to put in a good performance, especially this afternoon when I lapped with the tyres used in the morning and we were even quicker. Unfortunately, here at Silverstone the bumps in the asphalt make the situation rather complicated, but in any case I can see that virtually everyone is struggling: they’ve resurfaced the track but the conditions are worse than last year. Luckily the grip is good and so in the end things are not going so badly. Tomorrow we’ll try and use some other tyres, seeing as today we only focussed on tyre solutions for the rear, but for the moment I’m very satisfied with this first day.”
Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team #99) – 5th (2’01.782)
“I’m quite pleased with the work we’ve done today, because in the afternoon we were able to improve the bike from this morning. In the second session I felt a lot better and we resolved a few set-up problems, and if we continue like this I think that we can get our times down even further tomorrow and fight for the leading positions. Despite the fact that it has been resurfaced, the track has more bumps than before and the grip hasn’t improved, and that’s the reason why we weren’t able to lap with better times today.”
