The Mission Winnow Ducati rider resumed action today at Mugello Circuit for the Italian Gran Prix qualifiers. In sunny conditions, with 26 degrees in the atmosphere and almost 50 on the tarmac, Andrea Dovizioso will start from third row in ninth position with a personal best of 1:46.293.
Dovizioso made strides after facing some issues in the morning, progressively posting quicker lap times and improving the feeling with the Desmosedici GP to finish Q1 in first position before taking ninth place on the grid in the final session.
Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Mission Winnow Ducati) – 1:46.293 (9th)
“We’re competitive in terms of race pace but unfortunately today we struggled on the single lap, which slightly complicated our plans but also helped us understand how to improve the setup of my Desmosedici GP during FP4, as shown by the good lap time posted to get through Q1. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to push to the limit in Q2 because of the traffic, which made it very difficult to put a clean lap together even though second row was within our reach. Tomorrow we’ll have to recover positions and keep a strong pace from the very start. Given the track conditions, it’ll be crucial to pick the right tyres for the race, then we’ll be able to fight.”