Heavy rain and wintry weather conditions hampered the first day of free practice action at the Phillip Island circuit today.
Andrea Dovizioso set the fifth fastest time of the day in 1’41.569, on lap eleven of the thirteen he completed during the morning’s FP1 session. The Italian then opted not to go out on track in the afternoon because the rain became heavier, which forced the organizers to red-flag the session after the first fifteen minutes.
In order to give the MotoGP riders the possibility of partially making up for the time lost this afternoon due to the unfavourable weather conditions, the organizers have decided that the FP3 session scheduled for tomorrow morning will be extended from 45 to 60 minutes.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’41.569 (5th)
“This morning we encountered some rather extreme conditions and so we only really completed half a session because there was too much water on the track, but it was useful in any case because it helped us to understand how the tyres behave in the rain. In the end we set a good time, which puts us into fifth place, and now we have to see what sort of conditions we’ll find tomorrow. However I’m pretty pleased with the way I’ve started off this weekend.”