Just a few days of rest and traveling after the third round of the season in Argentina and the entire MotoGP paddock is already off to the United States, where the partly resurfaced Circuit of The Americas awaits for Grand Prix number four.
The 5.5-kilometer layout close to Austin is one of the most varied in the GP calendar.

Dovi is looking to make up some lost ground from Termas de Rio Hondo, where he had to stop in the pitlane after just one lap, but later on found a good rhythm and some improvements.

He already had some decent sensations aboard his Yamaha YZR-M1 last year and aims to cement his improvements with a strong result.

The WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team gets ready for Free Practice one this Friday at 09:55 local time (16:55 CET), while the race on Sunday will get underway at 13:00 local time (20:00 CET).

 

 

Andrea Dovizioso #04

“I’m happy to go to Austin, because I felt quite good there last year. The asphalt will be new, so we are curious how it’s going to feel. Anyway, I look forward to go there straight away to try to make a decent result. In the end, my pace in the race in Argentina was quite good, I was able to fight and I didn’t expect that before the race. So, we have some ideas after what I tried in the race in Termas. I was riding alone and able to play a little bit with the bike. We will try something in Austin and let’s see if it will help me to get a better feeling overall.”

The Gran Premio Michelin de la República Argentina took place in sunny and hot conditions today, following a very unusual weekend, which saw practice time limited due to cargo issues after the Indonesian round two weeks ago. Yet, Warm Up this morning was extended to 40 minutes in order to give riders and teams a better chance to prepare the 25 laps race in the afternoon.

Full of tension at the start, Dovi forgot to unlock his front start device after the start and had to come to the pits at the end of lap one. Until his crew managed to fix the issue, he was three laps from the top, but still went back out and did some pretty decent lap times, with a personal best of 1:39.908 after 18 laps. He eventually crossed the line in P20.

In just one week, Dovi can make up for a difficult Argentina weekend as the MotoGP World Championship is heading over to Texas now for the fourth round of the 2022 season at the Circuit of the Americas close to Austin.

 

Andrea Dovizioso #04
P 20

“I’m very disappointed, this never happened to me. I did a mistake and forgot to unlock the front start device. I locked it, but didn’t move the lever, I need to move to unload on the first corner. I didn’t think about that and though everything was blocked, but when I stopped in the pitlane, I realized, that this was my fault. I’m really sorry to the team, because this is something, that doesn’t need to happen, but it happens when you are not relaxed. I’m not comfortable, I’m not riding in a smooth way, not using the best potential of the bike and this is the tension. You want to do everything at the maximum from the start and I did this mistake. At least, my pace was pretty good in the end, but in any case, I can’t be happy about this weekend. I hope we can be closer in Austin.”.

The comeback to Argentina following two years of absence was a tricky one for riders and teams, as logistical issues stopped the MotoGP World Championship from kicking off on Friday as usual.
Therefore, Saturday has been fully packed and the WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team riders did two 60-minutes Free Practice session and headed straight to Qualifying from there.

The shortened track time was crucial for WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team’s Andrea Dovizioso, who has never ridden his Yamaha YZR-M1 at the Argentinean circuit before. He used FP1 and FP2 to study the layout again and improved from session one to session two by nearly one second.

In Qualifying one, he went again 0.811 seconds faster, but missed out on the last tickets to Q2 by 0.415 seconds. Dovi will start the third round of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship from row six on the grid.

Tomorrow’s Warm Up will start earlier than originally scheduled at 10:20 local time (15:20 CET) and is extended to 40 minutes in order to give the riders more time to re-adapt to the Termas the Rio Hondo Circuit.
The Gran Premio Michelin de la República Argentina, the third race of 2022 will get underway according to plan at 15:00 local time (20:00 CET).

 

Andrea Dovizioso #04
P 18

“It has not been an easy day overall. I’m struggling with the rear grip like before and here it is very low. For me it’s even worse and I feel like I can’t really play with the bike like I want to. It’s difficult. In the end, the Qualifying time was pretty ok though compared to other riders, but to be honest, I don’t feel very competitive. I’m not able to make a step exit by exit, like I wish to, because I’m not riding well enough. In the end, the lap time was acceptable, but not enough to be in a decent position. P18 seems to be more or less my position in the practice, which is unfortunately the reality at the moment. But we will work hard to get the best out of the race tomorrow.”