Catalunya GP qualifying – Dovizioso seventh and Crutchlow thirteenth.
Andrea Dovizioso will start from row 3 of the grid for the Catalunya Grand Prix, the seventh round of the MotoGP World Championship which will take place tomorrow at the Montmeló circuit, after recording a best time of 1’41.337 in the decisive qualifying session.
The Italian was particular impressive in the final fifteen-minute Q2 session, just missing out on the front row by two-tenths of a second. Dovizioso also lapped just three-tenths away from the pole position mark and is confident that his pace for tomorrow’s race is quite good.
Team-mate Crutchlow was in a bit more difficulty today, missing out on a top 10 position after the three free practice sessions. He then had to take part in Q1, but he was only third quickest in that session and so was excluded from the final run. The British rider will start tomorrow’s race from row 5 with thirteenth quickest time.
Michele Pirro, test-rider of the Ducati Test Team, placed two positions behind Cal with fifteenth quickest time and will also start from row 5.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 7th (1’41.337)
“I am very happy with my time, because I did a really good lap. This afternoon it was really hot and it wasn’t easy to set such good times. Unfortunately I’ll be starting from the third row, I just missed out on the front row by a few tenths! Luckily we’re all pretty close together, and I don’t have such a bad race pace either. We know the race will be tough and doing 25 laps in this heat will be very tiring, but I am satisfied because together with my team, we worked really well this weekend.”
Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team #35) – 13th (1’42.578)
“Qualifying was obviously very disappointing. I was unable to make a good lap time, and I am way too far away from Andrea, but also from Yonny Hernandez, who with his GP13 made a very good time. For sure we need to improve if we want to get a good result in tomorrow’s race.”
Michele Pirro (Ducati Test Team #51) – 15th (1’42.955)
“Even though the weather was a bit hotter than this morning, in the afternoon I still managed to improve my time and verify that the bike was working well with the new electronics strategies we were trying. I am quite happy because my feeling with the GP14 was much better. We have prepared as well as possible for tomorrow, hopefully we can have a good race.”
