Sixth-quickest time gives Iannone a row 2 start in Assen TT

Ducati Team riders Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso qualified in sixth and tenth place respectively at the Assen TT circuit in the Netherlands and will start from rows 2 and 4 of the grid for Saturday’s eighth round of the 2015 MotoGP World Championship.

In the morning’s FP3, Iannone and Dovizioso were third and fourth quickest, and went directly into the decisive Q2 session, while in the afternoon they were ninth and seventh in FP4.

In the qualifying session, valid for the first four rows of the grid, Iannone set sixth quickest time in 1’33.016 on his second run with soft tyres, just 0.389s away from Rossi’s pole mark. Despite being 0.485s off pole, Dovizioso’s time of 1’33.112, which he also set on soft tyres, was 0.485s away from the pole, but he could only record tenth place and as a result will start from row 4.

Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team #29) – 1'33.016 (6th): “A row 2 grid slot is important after the way things went today, but with a bit more fine-tuning we can still improve. Unfortunately on my best lap I found another rider almost stopped in the middle of the track in the last sector and this made me lose some time.We have got a good overall set-up but I am still having a bit of difficulty, especially in the changes in direction, and so we have to analyze the data and understand the reason why.

However I’m calm about it because I know we’ve done another step forward, even though it’s not exactly what we want because our aim is to fight for the top positions. In any case we have to be confident because we have the right basis to be more competitive.”

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1'33.112 (10th): “It’s really a pity about my qualifying result because I had a good feeling, the bike’s performance was good and I had a chance of doing well. I was just not very good at putting all the best split times together on the same lap and this cost us dearly. There are tracks like these where we’re all bunched together and it’s very easy to lose out.

It was important to start further up the grid, because at this circuit you can’t gain much at the start and there isn’t even a long straight where you can overtake. A bit of a pity really, but unfortunately that’s the way things went today. At this point I will try and get a good start tomorrow and then attempt to make up as many places as possible.”

Ducati Team