The first day of practice for the Grand Prix of the Americas, round 2 of the MotoGP World Championship taking place this weekend at the Austin circuit in Texas, ended with the Ducati Team rider – Andrea Dovizioso – in fifth place.
The morning’s FP1 session took place in the pouring rain and Dovizioso was able to top the timesheets, four-tenths quicker than Marc Marquez.
In the afternoon, FP2 began with a still damp track, but during the session the sun dried out the lines and the riders were able to lap on a completely dry surface towards the end. Dovizioso used a soft rear tyre on his final run to set his quickest time, and ended the day fifth.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 2’05.646 (5th)
“All things considered today was a positive day, even though the conditions were rather particular. But we are happy because we were quick both in the rain and in the dry. This afternoon the main aim was to stay in the top 10 because tomorrow morning it will probably rain. Unfortunately we were unable to work very much with dry settings, I only did four laps and the feeling with the bike is not good enough yet. We have to improve a few things, both in the wet and in the dry, if we want to fight for the podium tomorrow, but the limits of the bike are pretty similar in the various weather conditions, and so in any case tomorrow we have to work to try and resolve them.”