MotoGP de la Comunitat Valenciana: Andrea Dovizioso 9th and Danilo Petrucci 12th on Day 1

Andrea Dovizioso finished the opening day of practice for the GP de la Comunitat Valenciana, the final MotoGP round of the season scheduled for this weekend at the Ricardo Tormo circuit, in ninth position.
The Ducati Team rider set a time of 1’31.351 at the end of this afternoon’s second free practice session.

Danilo Petrucci, who recorded a time of 1’31.455 in the afternoon session, finished the day in twelfth place, while Michele Pirro, who lapped in 1’31.765 with the Desmosedici GP of the Ducati Test Team, was one place behind in thirteenth.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 1’31.351 (9th)
“This afternoon we had a few setbacks that prevented us from completely getting through our work load, but in any case we were able to get inside the top 10 and this is positive. At the moment, Viñales and Marquez have a better pace than all the other riders but our immediate target is to get in behind them and see what sort of margin we have for improvement. It will also be important to make the best tyre choice because for the moment the situation for the race isn’t very clear”.

Danilo Petrucci (#9 Ducati Team) – 1’31.455 (12th)
“In the afternoon the cold temperature made the conditions quite difficult, but we made some steps forward from this morning. In the end we are all quite close together but, even though our pace is not bad, I must still improve over one lap. We have to continue to work to improve my feeling with the bike, but I’m still feeling confident. We’re going in the right direction: we only have to get everything lined up in the right way and I’m sure we can get a good result.”

Michele Pirro (#51 Ducati Test Team) – 1’31.765 (13th)
“It was a day with a few setbacks, especially this morning when an oil leak ended up on the exhausts, but I’m not far away from the top ten and this is positive, even though we’re still missing something. Basically I missed out on almost all of the morning session, and so we’re not quite right with the set-up, but we’ve got some ideas to make a step forward. The team is doing a great job: setbacks happen sometimes, but tomorrow we’ll be ready.” 

The Ducati Team riders will be back out on track again tomorrow, Saturday 16th November, at 9.55 am for the third free practice session, while qualifying will be held after FP4 starting from 14.10.

About Michael Le Pard 10160 Articles
"Mr. Totalmotorcycle". Owner and Founder of Total Motorcycle, the World’s Largest Motorcycle Site with over 425 million readers since 1999. Total Motorcycle is my pride and joy and being able to reach 425 million people has been incredible and I could not have done it without the support of my visitors, readers and members...thank you so much! We are all making a difference to millions of riders worldwide.