Mugello race is Dovizioso’s to lose, believes Crutchlow

LCR Honda rider Crutchlow outpaced Dovizioso by 0.161 seconds in Friday afternoon's second practice session to end the day atop the combined timesheets by 0.029s.

But the Briton believes that Ducati's wealth of experience at Mugello – where the Italian marque tested last month ahead of the Le Mans race – combined with the GP17's strong acceleration and top speed make Dovizioso a clear favourite to win.

"I would say Dovi at the moment, at the moment it's his to lose," said Crutchlow when asked who he expected to be his strongest rivals in Sunday's race.

"They have the most amount of testing around here. Dovi and [Michele] Pirro, probably. Pirro has a good pace. But, yeah, it's Dovi's to lose at the minute.

"In the end they have so much testing and data around here. They have from probably halfway down the straight, so to the pit boards, about four tenths of a second to the braking of the first corner. And we know because we have studied.

"So they have a lot, they have a big advantage. But you can't ever count out Marc [Marquez], Maverick [Vinales], Vale [Rossi], Dani [Pedrosa] has a great pace as well."

Dovizioso not getting complacent

Dovizioso, whose sole win for Ducati came in the wet last year at Sepang, was satisfied with how he started his home race weekend, but cautioned that the Desmosedici is still lagging in corner speed, which he feels will be "key" come race day.

"I don't look at the weekend in this way," said Dovizioso when asked if he saw the Mugello weekend as an opportunity to score his second victory aboard a Ducati.

"We are in a good situation now, but we have to speak about that tomorrow at this time. Friday is too early, and I know how the strong the competitors are.

"For sure we have to try to reduce the gap we have in the middle of the corner, because it's the only point where I lose in this track. I'm really strong in acceleration, braking and the straights, but still in the middle of the corner we lose too much.

"I think that will be the key for the race, because in hot conditions with a full tank, everything is harder and that will make a difference."

Additional reporting by Mitchell Adam