The Ducati Team had an excellent day today at the Red Bull Ring, with its two riders Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo qualifying second and third respectively for tomorrow’s Austrian Grand Prix. The all-important Q2 session was held on a dry track after the morning’s FP3 run, which was run in the wet, left the overnight positions unchanged.
During the Q2 Dovizioso, who only went out on medium rear tyres, set a time of 1’23.243 on his second run, the Italian finishing just two-thousandths of a second away from Marquez’s pole time, while Jorge Lorenzo, who did three runs on soft rear tyres, was classified third with a time of 1’23.376.
The eleventh round of the season, over a distance of 28 laps, will get underway tomorrow afternoon at 14.00 CET.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04): 2nd (1’23.243)
“I was just a couple of thousandths of a second off the pole, but in any case qualifying went very well: I set a really good time and I didn’t expect that because in FP4 I didn’t have a great feeling with the bike. We chose the medium rear tyre for qualifying and it went well, and also for the race we are in good shape. Marquez here is particularly competitive, more than last year, but we are also stronger and so I believe that tomorrow it will be a three-way battle with Marc and Jorge. Unfortunately, we were not able to do many laps in the dry and so we’ll go into the race with some doubts about the choice of tyres and the strategies, and we’ll just have to be ready to manage the situation.”
Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team #99): 3rd (1’23.376)
“We’re on the front row again and very close to the pole, with a very good lap time that I think I could have improved even more. It was actually a pity not to be able to do more laps in the dry in practice, to set up the bike better. In qualifying we opted for a three-run strategy with three new rear tyres, but probably in the last exit we should also have changed the front tyre, which was pretty worn, and it didn’t allow me to push the way I wanted to and improve my time. In any case third place on the grid is very good and now we have to think of a good strategy for tomorrow, because it’ll probably be a race between me, Dovi and Marquez, and I think we’re going to have some fun! We are all very close together and the most important thing is that we have confirmed that now we’re competitive at every circuit and that we are working in the right direction.”
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