The MotoGP riders started up their engines at 7.55 pm local time this evening for the first 45 minute run and Dovizioso used the softer rear tyre option and he ended up 0.947s off the pace of the Spanish world champion.
Tomorrow there are two further sessions of free practice, which together with today’s, will determine the ten riders who will go directly into Saturday evening’s Q2 session.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’56.387 (9th)
“It was a bit of a strange session because the conditions were quite different to the ones we found here during the tests at the start of the month. We started off by using tyres that today produced a bit of front-end vibration and so now we will have to work to try and understand the cause. However I am not worried about my position because I still had some margin and in some corners I preferred not to take too many risks in this first practice session because I still haven’t reached a perfect feeling with the bike.”