Despite cloudy skies in the morning, the first two practice sessions were held on a dry track and FP1 concluded with Dovizioso third after the 45-minute run.
In the early afternoon the MotoGP riders again went out on track for 45 minutes and everyone was able to improve the times set in the morning: Dovizioso finished the session with a best lap of 2’04.830, which put him in sixth place, while Lorenzo finished in eleventh place with a time of 2’05.282.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 2’04.830 (6th)
“It was a bit of an unusual day because we found a track that was quite different from last year. There are a lot of dips in it and so everything became rather complicated: it’s not easy to find the right set-up because there isn’t much grip, you can’t push very hard on the front, and in any case we must also consider tyre wear for the race. All in all, despite the overall feeling not being that great, we are not bad at all for pace. At this moment there is no doubt that Viñales and Marquez have a lot more pace, but after them we are all in there together. Tomorrow the temperature should be a bit lower than today, and we will try and take advantage of the situation and work with the race in mind.”