Today proved to be a bit difficult for Andrea Dovizioso, who in FP3 was unable to make the best of the soft rear tyre he fitted towards the end of the session, and he finished in eleventh place, which meant he had to take part in Q1. After a good performance in FP4, in which he finished fifth, the rider from Forlì tackled the first qualifying session. Unfortunately his best time of 1’48.294, third-quickest, was not sufficient to gain entry into Q2, and so Dovizioso finished the day in thirteenth place and will have to start from row 5 of the grid.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’48.294 (13th)
“It was a real pity today, because if we had managed to get into Q2 I think we could have been able to do a good qualifying session and get a place on the first three rows. I didn’t do a perfect lap in Q1 because in the first two corners the rear tyre gave me the impression that it wasn’t at the right temperature, even though I was sure I had bedded it in well. Sometimes you don’t get a perfect tyre, but even without this we could have got a better result even though I had the impression that my time was good enough to get into Q2. In FP4 we improved and our pace is now good enough for me to stay just behind the leading group. A better qualifying position would have been important, but now the only thing to do is to try and make up some places with a good start.”