MotoGP – Iannone qualifies on row 3 for Indianapolis GP in seventh place, while Dovizioso lines up tenth on the grid
After the second day of practice and qualifying for the Indianapolis GP which will be held Sunday at the legendary Motor Speedway, Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso of the Ducati Team set seventh and tenth quickest times respectively and will start Sunday’s tenth round of the MotoGP World Championship from rows 3 and 4 of the grid.
During the third free practice session in the morning, Iannone managed to go third quickest, thus ensuring that he went directly through into Q2, while Dovizioso, who did not have a perfect feeling with his Desmosedici GP15, was unable to improve on his FP2 time from Friday and had to take part in the first qualifying session (Q1) as he finished in eleventh place.
After the 30-minute FP4 session in the early afternoon, in which Iannone and Dovizioso were fifth and ninth, Q1 got underway and here Dovizioso finished second behind Danilo Petrucci (Pramac Racing Team Ducati), thus guaranteeing himself a place in Q2.
In second qualifying, counting for the first four rows of the starting-grid line-up, Iannone recorded seventh quickest time on his second exit with a soft rear tyre, while Dovizioso had to settle for tenth place and a row 4 starting slot for Sunday’s race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team #29) – 1’32.468 (7th)
“We are suffering a bit but we have always managed to improve in every session, and all things considered this is positive because modifications don’t always go well every time you make them. Instead, we have succeeded in gaining constantly, in improving our situation and our race pace, and this is important. As for the rest, I expected to be a bit quicker in qualifying, but it was tough for me even to set this time. Tomorrow we’ll try and do our best, but in any case I’d like to thank the guys in my team because they are really making a big effort.”
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’32.636 (10th)
“Today was a really difficult day, starting from this morning when we lost virtually the entire session due to various problems and were unable to work well. Unfortunately when we use the soft tyre we always have a big vibration at the front and so I have never been able to push harder to obtain a better grid position. As for our race pace, we are not where we’d like to be, but we are in the second group, not so far behind the front guys, and so with a good start I feel sure I can make up some positions.”
