Dovizioso qualifies on row 2 at Misano

Andrea Dovizioso was able to qualify well this afternoon at the Misano World Circuit. The Ducati Team man set sixth-fastest time, two-tenths of a second away from pole-sitter Lorenzo, and he will start from the second row of the grid for tomorrow’s race.

Team-mate Cal Crutchlow was not so fortunate; due to a technical problem he was unable to improve his Q1 time and finished in thirteenth place. As a result the British rider will start round 13 of the MotoGP World Championship, the TIM San Marino and Rimini Riviera GP, from row 5.

In this morning’s free practice session Dovizioso had finished second-quickest behind his fellow Ducati rider Iannone, thus guaranteeing him an automatic place in Q2, while Crutchlow, thirteenth after the three combined free sessions, had to tackle Q1.

After going top of the leaderboard in the first part of the session, the Coventry man went out on track again to try and improve his time, but a technical problem forced him back into the pits, and right at the very end of the session, Cal was passed by Hernandez and Bradl who edged him out of Q2.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 6th (1’33.439): “This afternoon we had a few problems and were unable to complete all the scheduled work load. Unlike the last few races, we didn’t manage to get into qualifying with the best possible set-up and as a result this didn’t allow me to get the best out of my technical package. We could have done a better qualifying session, but at this point it’s vital to get a good start from the second row, and then figure out the pace to maintain during the race”.

Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team #35) – 13th (1’34.495): “I’m obviously disappointed not to go into the last qualifying due to a technical problem with the bike but this is racing and we have to continue to work hard for tomorrow’s race. I was confident in Q1: we made a good start, we had some things that we wanted to try and I believe that we could have made a big improvement on the lap time with the second tyre, but we had the problem with the bike. Despite everything, I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s race: I think we are faster than our position on the grid for sure and hopefully we can have a good battle in the race.

Ducati Team