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“After everything that happened this weekend, the second row is a good result.” Dovizioso breathes a sigh of relief after going through Q1 and defending himself in Q2 on a day where the GP17 machines struggled.
“In Q1 did a really nice lap in extremis, so nice that I was unable to repeat it in Q2 - he laughs - I had ridden aggressively, making up for my mistakes, and then I tried to be more fluid and it didn’t work.”
The day had not started well…
“I crashed in FP4 because a tyre that was not fully up to temperature and I was unable to stay in the top 10 in FP3 by a few tenths. With this rule, there is more stress for the riders in free practice than in qualifying and the race.”
In fact, you proposed a change.
“I understand that there is more audience with this system, but we are not here just for the show. We need to prepare for the race. I am not making excuses and it’s the same for everyone, but often there are good riders doing times with new tyres who then disappear in the race. It seems like the entire weekend is a qualifying session.”
No one backed you in this battle?
“I had already proposed using only FP3 for qualifying last year, but no one had backed me. I talked about it again this season and I found more support. We are talking about it amongst ourselves, but we can’t do much if there is no interest in making a change.”
Getting back to the GP, what do you expect for tomorrow?
“The Yamahas are definitely very competitive, but I do not feel like I’m very far from them. In qualifying I happened to be near Viñales and I saw how strong both he and the Yamaha are. It does something special. I lost especially on the slow corners. I think he is able to use a ratio higher than mine. Also, Marquez and Pedrosa will definitely be competitive too but, like I said, I am not far off.”
