Andrea Dovizioso admits he is still unsure how Ducati will go in tomorrow’s Qatar Grand Prix despite qualifying a superb fourth on Saturday. The Italian feels the team are getting the most out of their GP13 machine although he doesn’t want to predict where that might take him in the race.
“I’m very pleased to make the second row, just a few tenths from first place. I didn’t expect to do a 1:55.1 lap, or especially to be so close to Lorenzo. It was nice to have a good feeling with the bike when I tried to push hard with a new tyre in the last laps. I’m really happy with the work that the team did this weekend because we managed to make it to qualifying with a perfect setup of our electronics, so we were quickly able to use the bike to its full potential. Starting from the second row will be important for the race. I still have some big question marks for the race because everything is still new for me, but I’m very motivated for tomorrow. We’ll see how things are in the race.”
After qualifying down in tenth, Nicky Hayden paid tribute to his teammate and is hoping to find some answers to his lack of pace when he looks at Dovizioso’s data.
“In the first run, I had a lot of chatter from out of nowhere. I went back out, and right when I went to start my hot lap, the other guys were pulling out of the pits, and I just made too many mistakes in the traffic. I’m certainly not thrilled, especially because last year I was one second faster in qualifying. It was a poor job by me when it counted, but credit to Andrea for a really good session. I think our setups are very similar, but we’ll definitely have to check his data.”
