On a bright sunny day, with an air temperature of around 26 degrees, the Ducati Team rider took to the track in the morning’s FP3 session, notching up the fourth-quickest time, as a result guaranteeing his passage into the all-important Q2 session.
In the afternoon, following the 30 minutes of FP4 which concluded in fourth, Dovizioso got ready to go out on track shortly after for the second qualifying run, this time decisive for the first four rows of the grid.
On his second run with the medium compound rear tyre, Dovizioso had to settle for sixth place and row 2, with a time of 1’38.520.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04)- 1’38.520 (6th)
“I am satisfied with the work that we have done, because we arrived in FP4 both competitive and fast and we even managed to improve a little. We also did a comparison run of the two front tyres available and in this heat the hard one goes a bit better. In qualifying I was unable to put together a good complete lap, and it’s a pity that I missed out on the front row by so little, but it’s not a big problem. In my opinion it will be a very difficult race because everyone will have to manage their rear tyres, but we are fast and so it will be very important to get a good start. Only in the race will we really see what the pace is, but above all who will manage to be consistent for the whole 25 laps.”