MotoGP: Dovizioso’s New Ducati Setting the Pace

After a successful test in Mugello Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) each had access to a GP14.2, the next evolution of the Ducati MotoGP bike, on Friday. Featuring a slimmer design to make the bike more nimble, both riders enjoyed using it at the Spanish track as round 14 got underway.

Friday morning saw Dovizioso finish in seventh spot, 1.048s down on Iannone, who topped the session. FP1 brought fairly low temperatures with the track at just 17ºC.

FP2 saw Dovizioso use the GP14.2 for his final run on track with soft tires. This final attack resulted in a 1’48.285s best lap, 0.043s quicker than Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) who had led the session comfortably until then. This placed the Ducati rider 0.449s ahead of Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) in third.

“The new bike is positive, it’s more comfortable to be on but the bike’s speed is the same. But our speed in the last three races has been good, apart from when the tires go off. I’m not happy with how I have to manage the bike currently,” said Dovizioso.

He continued, “I think we can keep this speed and we can stay in the front, it’ll just be hard here as the tyre drops off very quickly here after only three laps.” Dovizioso added, “I did a really great lap at the end. I am very happy with the time I set, especially because I didn’t do a perfect lap. I can confirm that the GP14.2 is narrower and also more comfortable, and so it goes better from that point of view, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

Teammate Cal Crutchlow also made improvements on Friday, finishing 11th overall. A 1’49.373 lap had the British rider 0.061s behind tenth placed Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), who won last time out in Misano.

Using only the older bike, Crutchlow commented, “I felt quite good on the bike, I thought I would struggle more. We had some technical problems this morning so the session wasn’t the best. On my fast lap I got held up because there were a lot of riders going slow and I lost half a second in a sector, putting me out of the top ten. I’m disappointed in that sense but I feel more comfortable on the bike so that’s a positive. The track has good grip for us at the moment, but Turn 1 is a big trouble for us. I lose it all in that corner.”