The Ducati Team resumed action today at the Assen TT Circuit (Netherlands), home of the eighth round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship, for the Dutch Grand Prix qualifiers. Despite the strong start in yesterday’s sessions and the good pace shown in race configuration during today’s free-practice, the radical change of weather conditions – with 30 degrees in the atmosphere and more than 50 on the tarmac – hindered the flying-lap performance of both Danilo Petrucci and Andrea Dovizioso, who will start tomorrow’s race in seventh and eleventh position respectively.
Due to lower grip levels caused by the rising temperatures, Petrucci posted a personal best of 1:33.282 and will open third row on the grid tomorrow. Dovizioso clocked a 1:33.692 and will start from fourth row.
Danilo Petrucci (#9 Ducati Team) – 1:33.282 (7th)
“I tried to push as hard as I could, taking also some big risks, but the higher temperatures troubled us a bit, as both the grip and the overall stability diminished. Undoubtedly we expected to be able to do better. It’s a pity, because this morning in FP3 I felt so comfortable that I told the team I had the best bike I’ve ever ridden here at Assen, and I posted the provisional lap record. To be honest, it has also been a bit chaotic out there in Q2 because all riders were sort of guarding one another closely. Tomorrow it shouldn’t be as hot, or at least I hope so: we’ll analyze the data to make sure we can express our full potential during the race.”
Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 1:33.692 (11th)
“It’s been a bit of a strange day, with really high temperatures. After starting off on the right foot in free practice, unfortunately we couldn’t be as competitive during qualifying. It’s a shame because starting from fourth row complicates our plans a bit, but I wasn’t able to complete a ‘clean’ lap. We’re more competitive in terms of pace, we still have to improve but I believe we can ride a solid race. A lot will depend on what weather conditions we’ll find tomorrow. At any rate, we won’t give up and we’ll try to be fast in any condition.”
The Ducati Team will be back on track tomorrow, June 30th, at 09:40 (CET) for a warm-up session ahead of the race, which is scheduled to start at 14:00
