PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team’s MotoGP rider Andrea Dovizioso will start the Grande Prémio do Algarve – the penultimate round of the season at Portimão – from 21st.
Dovi was also quick to start reducing his lap time in FP3, as he also worked on improving his feeling with the bike. The Italian set a best lap time of 1’40.364, placing him 20th in FP3 and 22nd overall. Qualifying saw ‘Dovi’ set a series of solid laps early on and he continued to reduce his lap time throughout the 15 minutes. On his final flying lap he was able to set a time of 1’39.918, which saw him finish Q1 11th and will see him start the race from 21st.
Dovi will be back out on track at 9.30am tomorrow for Warm Up, before the AlgarveGP concludes with the 25-lap MotoGP race at 1pm.
Andrea Dovizioso #04
P 21“I’m happy because I was able to go faster this morning and also this afternoon, when I was with the group. However, the position isn’t the best so I’m not happy about that. I was able to improve the way that I was braking, which is good, but it is very difficult to stay in the middle of the group. We need something more though to make more gains. My speed is there when I’m in the group, but I think it will be difficult to gain positions and make overtakes tomorrow. I think everybody will have a really good pace, but the race is long and we will see what happens. Our target is always to try to finish in the points”.