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Perhaps it is the motivation of a win in their home GP, but Ducati would have been hard pressed to ask for any more on Friday at Montmelò. In fact, Jorge Lorenzo is second in the combined time standings, which demonstrates how the Spaniard and the GP17 are already in harmony on the flying lap, whereas Andrea Dovizioso, the hero of Tuscany, is just behind the top three in fourth place.
The Spaniard is off on the right foot, but he is keen to stay calm: “It is not easy to draw conclusions as early as today and the second place I achieved must not give us any delusions about our chances. In any case, I am generally encouraged by the sensations that I am feeling on the bike. I was fast both with the hard tyre at the beginning of the session and with the softer one toward the end and I am losing less than expected in the first sector.”
There is no lack of areas on which to work, and number 99 has them clearly in mind.
"We need to improve on a few corners, where the bumps cause significant chattering, as well as the fact that in acceleration the bike moves around too much in some places. If we are able to resolve these issues, we can aspire to something important. The tyre choice for the race will also be difficult since Montmelò is a track where you are inclined for a lot of the time and it is complicated to control tyre wear. My speed is good, but we need to understand if the bike and tyre will let me maintain the right pace for race distance.”
On the other side of the red garage, Andrea Dovizioso in focusing his attention first and foremost on the track, which is ready with various tricky areas.
“Even though we did two days of tests, it was a shock going out on the track today too – Dovi began – because of the many bumps which have multiplied since last year and the asphalt that is really quite worn and lacking in grip. Add to this the fact that Barcelona is a track that eats up the rear tyre and you get a very difficult mixture to tackle.”
However, Desmodovi has not lost his way, assessing the first day positively and sending out a warning for Sunday: “We started well today with a good base from the tests, but tomorrow the deck could be shuffled. For the race it will be fundamental to see who will be able to be fast with worn tyres since the times may go up by even a second in these conditions, besides the fact that we will need to conserve our energy, given the fact that the physical fatigue will be rather taxing what with the movements we have to make and the poor grip here.”
