The opening day of action at the Circuit of The Americas saw both standard bearers of the Ducati Lenovo Team earn the direct seed to Q2, taking place tomorrow at Austin, Texas. Francesco Bagnaia was fourth quickest at the end of Practice, while his teammate Enea Bastianini finished the session in eighth position.
Bagnaia waited until the last lap to make the difference and, thanks to a 2:01.808 lap-time, catapulted himself from twelfth to fourth position, avoiding Q1. The reigning World Champion focused his attention throughout the day on working ahead of the races, working mostly on medium compound tyres and then deciding to use the soft tyres only in the last two runs of the afternoon.
Bastianini, on the other hand, spent most of the afternoon session in the top positions but did not manage to improve his lap-time in the final stages. His 2:02.144 lap-time still granted him a spot in the top ten, which is key in order to aim at a spot on the front rows in tomorrow’s Q2 session, which will get underway at 11:15 local time (GMT -5).
The third sprint race of the season will start at 15:00.
Francesco Bagnaia (#1 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 4th
“It was a positive day and I’m happy, it was maybe one of the best Fridays in a while. I manage to get a good feeling and we improved in each outing. We decided to follow a different strategy compared to the others as we lapped more with the medium tyre. It looks like a good option, even though the soft tyre seems manageable, but we’ll see tomorrow and then we’ll make a final decision on what to use in the race. We will surely have to do a good qualifying and then try to stay towards the front from the get-go in the sprint race.”
Enea Bastianini (#23 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 8th
“I’m quite happy with today, especially with regards to the race pace, which saw us in the top three. There’s something to improve in the time attack and I feel this is the area where I struggle more. I must say that in the last outing I had a difficult time due to a rider ahead of me – there was a lot of traffic on the track. I hope I’ll be quicker tomorrow and surely it’ll be very important to start near the front. We’ll continue to work, give our best, and to improve step by step.”
- From Ducati Media House
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