Ducati Team: Crutchlow will start from row 2 with fifth-quickest time at Aragon

Cal Crutchlow finally managed to put in a good qualifying run as he powered to a row 2 grid position for the GP of Aragón, which will take place tomorrow at the MotorLand circuit near Alcañiz.

After finishing both of today’s free practice sessions in ninth place, the British rider was able to advance directly into Q2, and on his second run he set a time of 1’47.897 to earn him fifth place and row 2 on the grid.

There was some disappointment however for Andrea Dovizioso, who had ended the final free practice session in second place behind Marquez and who had been expecting to run well in qualifying.

It’s going to be a tough race tomorrow, because the tyres drop a lot, but I’ll try my best to get a strong top 10 finish.

Cal Crutchlow

The Italian was quickest at the first split on his fast lap, but then crashed out a few corners later and had to settle for ninth, with a time of 1’48.542 that he set on his first run. Dovizioso will start tomorrow’s race from row 3.

Also worthy of mention is the excellent qualifying run by Andrea Iannone on the Pramac Racing Team’s GP14.2 machine. The young Italian, who will be team-mate to Dovizioso in the Ducati Team next year, set third-quickest time in 1’47.685 and will start from the front row.

Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team #35) – 5th (1’47.897): “Obviously I’m more pleased with today’s result than over the other weekends. We managed to qualify on the second row, which is the best result since Assen for me. Hopefully we can get away with the other guys tomorrow and have a better race. I think we deserve it, because it was a fantastic job by the team today in the qualifying session for me to be so fast, but we still have to work a lot on the race pace and the set-up. It’s going to be a tough race tomorrow, because the tyres drop a lot, but I’ll try my best to get a strong top 10 finish.”

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 9th (1’48.542): “It was a real pity, because in FP4 we had good pace, and I think I can say now that we are a lot closer to the top guys also for race pace. I was sure I could do a good qualifying session but I lost the front at turn 8 in a rather strange crash. I don’t think I did anything wrong: it was my mistake but I don’t think I exaggerated that much, maybe we’re a bit too close to the limit at the front. We’ve got to work to improve this tomorrow because otherwise in the race I won’t be able to push that hard. Today however we did a good job and we’ve got good race pace.”

Ducati Team