The Ducati Team riders Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci will start from the third and fifth rows of the grid respectively in the Lenovo Grand Prix of San Marino and the Rimini Riviera, that will be held tomorrow on a 27-lap distance at Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli”.
After having gained direct access to Q2, finishing 10th in FP3 this morning, Andrea Dovizioso had to settle in ninth place (1:32.184) in the official qualifying. At the end of the day, however, the rider from Forlì has declared to be satisfied with the work done together with his team as he was finally able to find a good feeling with his Ducati Desmosedici GP20 bike.
Danilo Petrucci, who was 15th at the end of this morning’s third free practice session, had to take part, therefore, in Q1 where he wasn’t able to do a clean lap in the last minutes available, finishing fifth in 1:32.418. Tomorrow, Petrucci will start then from the fifth row of the grid, from the fifteenth position.
Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 1:32.184 (9th)
“I’m happy because we were finally able to improve my feeling with the bike and today we got closer to the front riders. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do better than the ninth place in qualifying; our goal today was to finish at least in the second row because here in Misano the start is short and quite narrow. Now we will try to take another step forward in tomorrow morning’s warm-up. The goal for the race tomorrow will be fighting in the top five positions.”
Danilo Petrucci (#9 Ducati Team) – 1:32.418 (15th)
“Definitely this was not the position I expected to get today in qualifying. The gaps are always very narrow, but unfortunately, I failed to set a good lap time. In the second lap available with the new tyre, I made several mistakes that didn’t allow me to improve. My pace for the race is more consistent, but it will be crucial to be able to start well to be able to stay hooked immediately to the front and have the chance to get a good result”.
Tomorrow at 9:20 AM, the Ducati Team riders will take to the track for the last twenty minutes of Warm Up before the race that will start at 2:00 PM local time.
