The Mission Winnow Ducati team resumed action at Losail (Qatar) to move forward with the development of the Desmosedici GP19 in the last MotoGP tests before the season opener, scheduled for March 8-10 on the track near Doha. In the second of three days, Andrea Dovizioso made the most of the track time available to push hard from the very first laps to draw comparisons and further define the technical base.
Dovizioso showed progress, taking three tenths of a second off his previous best to post a 1:55.205. The Italian, who finished the session in 8th position 0.252 seconds behind his teammate with 53 laps completed, also did a simulation to cover the race distance in two consecutive exits at the time scheduled for the Grand Prix and was able to run further comparisons with the new aerodynamic profile (which was first evaluated two weeks ago at Sepang) with positive feedback.
Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Mission Winnow Ducati) – 1:55.205 (8th)
“If we look at the lap times, today they probably don’t reveal too much: many riders worked esclusively for the upcoming race, but what matters the most is that my feeling with the bike is good. Today, as we had previously done in Malaysia, we did a race simulation split into two runs. It’s a very important task ahead of the opening race, even if it will unfold in slightly different conditions, and it allowed to gather interesting feedback even though it’s still difficult to gauge the true potential of our opponents. I think we’re working well and methodically, and tomorrow we’ll continue to focus on some details to find more ways to further improve.”