- Positive start of the weekend for Andrea Dovizioso, sixth overall at the end of Day 1 of free practices for the Valencia GP at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Cheste, as he closes only 304 thousandths from Jack Miller, today’s pacesetter, with the Desmosedici GP bike of the Pramac Racing team.
Less than a week after the last GP held at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Cheste, the Ducati Team riders returned to work today for the first day of free practices for the Valencia GP, scheduled this weekend at the same track.
Resuming from where he left off and working on his Desmosedici GP bike basing on the data collected last week, Andrea Dovizioso has had a positive start to the weekend as he steadily improved his pace during today’s sessions. After finishing seventh in FP1 in 1:31.410, the rider from Forlì was almost half a second quicker during FP2 this afternoon, as he set the sixth time overall at the end of Friday, just 304 thousandths off today’s pacesetter Jack Miller with the Desmosedici GP of the Pramac Racing Team.
Danilo Petrucci, who returned to Valencia with the aim of improving his performance at the Spanish race track, ended Friday with the fourteenth fastest time overall. Eighteenth at the end of FP1 this morning, the rider from Terni managed to improve again this afternoon, closing in 1:31.230, 608 thousandths of a second from the top of the timesheets.
Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 1:30.926 (6th)
“It’s been a good day. Compared to last week, my feeling with the bike has improved, and we were able to understand why I couldn’t be competitive in the early stages of the race on Sunday. We also identified some sectors on the track where we can still improve, and if we can do that, I’m sure we can have a good qualifying tomorrow and a good race. There are several fast riders with a similar pace to ours, so it will be crucial to be able to enter Q2 and get a position on the front rows of the grid”.
Danilo Petrucci (#9 Ducati Team) – 1:31.230 (14th)
“I am quite satisfied with this first day of work: my feeling with the bike is good, as well as also my pace with the tyres with the race set up. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to be as fast with the soft tyre this afternoon, and we have to try to understand why. I hope the weather holds up tomorrow morning so that I can try my time attack again in the FP3 session”.
The Ducati Team riders will be back on track tomorrow at 10:55 am for the third free practice session of the Valencia GP, while qualifying will be held in the afternoon from 2:50 pm local time (GMT +1.00), at the end of the FP4.
