Dovizioso content with ‘really good speed’

Andrea Dovizioso could barely contain his pleasure at ending the first day of MotoGP free practice with the second fastest time, the Italian stating he was “really happy” with his speed aboard Ducati’s GP18.

The 32-year old started the day well, topping FP1 with a 1m 59.697s effort, before continuing with improvements in the afternoon. Such was his confidence, Dovizioso neglected to fit fresh rubber toward the end of FP2.

“I’m really happy because we started this morning with a really good speed,” he said. “We did a good lap time in bad conditions. But this afternoon we did a step.

“We showed a really good speed but exit by exit with the same tyres I was able to improve my lap time. I was really fast. We tried two different set-ups and it was a bit better. So I’m really happy with the feeling I have on the bike.

“We didn’t put a new tyre at the end because we didn’t need it. So I’m really happy. But maybe it will rain and then we start from zero.

“I was really interested to see the differences between this bike and the one I had in the test. It is pretty different and this one is better. I’m really happy to confirm the work we did during the season.”

What was the major change from January’s test? “Nothing special,” he said. “It’s always the same. We can’t really change something big. It’s small things everywhere.”

On the possibility of running rain on qualifying day, he said, “I think it can be good but every year has a different story. Our balance is completely different from last year. Maybe it’s better but we can’t know. Let’s see how we ride in this condition.

“I really would like to make a dry race because it’s the toughest race for sure about the physical condition. But it will be very important to make this test in the dry.”