Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci will line up for the start of the British Grand Prix, which is scheduled to get underway at 13.00 local time (14.00 CET) tomorrow and which will be run over 20 laps of the Silverstone circuit, from rows 3 and 4 respectively after today’s qualifying session.
Dovizioso finished this morning’s FP3 session in fourteenth and so had to take part in Q1, which he headed with a time of 1’58.944. Andrea then improved in Q2, with a lap time of 1’58.762, exactly the same as Viñales, but he was classified seventh behind the Spanish rider.
Danilo Petrucci was fifth quickest in FP3 with a time of 1’59.034 which took him through into Q2, but he was unable to repeat that performance in qualifying and will start from row 4 in eleventh place after recording a lap time of 1’59.487.
Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 1’58.762 (7th)
“Luckily we managed to find a good feeling in FP4, when we used the hard tyre for the first time and we were in good shape by carefully studying the data. Marquez appears to be the quickest, but then there’s a group of five riders, me included, who all have a similar pace. It’s difficult to predict how the race will go: for sure the Yamahas and the Suzuki of Rins, as well as Marquez, will be very strong, especially over the early laps, but this track is very challenging, both for the tyres and for the body, so we’ll have to see what will happen. Tomorrow it’ll probably be hot again, the same as or even more than today, and I think that a lot of riders will opt for the hard tyre, which isn’t easy to get the best out of because it doesn’t have much grip but allows you to ride more smoothly. It’s a pity I just lost out on the second row, but I don’t think that the starting position will affect my race.”
Danilo Petrucci (#9 Ducati Team) – 1’59.487 (11th)
“Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do a good qualifying session. It’s a pity because this morning I liked the bike a lot and I was fast: in the afternoon we made a few small changes but I wasn’t able to find the same feeling. In Q2 there was a lot of rear grip but not very much at the front and I felt that the steering was lighter so I couldn’t even repeat this morning’s time, maybe because of the higher temperature. Our minimum aim was to start from the second or the third row, but we didn’t manage it and so the race won’t be very easy for us. Now we’ll have to have a close look at the data to see exactly what happened and try and find a solution for tomorrow.”
The Ducati Team will be back on track again tomorrow, Sunday 25th August, at 9.30 local time (10.30 CET) for the warm-up session in preparation for the race, which is scheduled to start at 13.00 local time (14.00 CET).
