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It wasn’t a particularly sparkling start to the weekend for Andrea Dovizioso, as evidenced by his 15th place in the combined standings. In any case, Andrea did not not lose his cool, and with his usual intelligence and calm analysed all the facets of this particular day.
“I don't think today is any indication of how things will go on Sunday - explained Andrea - since it was very strange. First of all, the difference in grip between Misano and here is enormous, and you have to adapt. Secondly, in the afternoon we had to fight against the strong wind: to be fast you had to risk a lot, which I didn't want to do. On top of that Bagnaia and I used a completely different rear tyre strategy to the others, so I can't know my true speed. In general, I think this is true for many, given the particular conditions ".
The topic of tyre strategy remains hot, and Dovizioso went into further detail.
“If you want to lap a lot with a tyre, the best thing to do is to put it on at the end of FP1 and keep it in FP2, which everyone normally does. Here the drop in tyres is important, so everyone worked purely on the medium compound, mounting a new tyre both in the morning and in the afternoon. I wanted to accumulate laps with the soft instead, given that our bike struggles to warm up the medium tyre, but obviously tomorrow I'll have to go for a fast time like everyone else ”.
At the same time, however, the man from Forlì is honest, admitting that he probably could not have emulated his brand-mate Zarco in any way.
“Zarco did a really great time this afternoon, also considering the wind, so I don't feel like saying I could have emulated him. If I had made the same tyre choices, I would have been able to make a comparison, which we don't have at the moment, but it doesn't change much ”.
So what to expect from Dovi tomorrow? A difficult question, even for Andrea himself…
"Here in Barcelona it's hard to understand why you can really improve so much from one exit to the next. Looking at today's data, some things can dazzle you: today's best times given the wind are really fast, so I hope they won't be lowered that much tomorrow. Personally, tomorrow morning I'll go for a fast time from the start, and we'll see. Right now the benchmark rider is Quartararo, who was quick in all the outings of the day ”.
Petrucci: "Difficult to ride today, but I'm not worried"
If there is some more work to be done on the side of Dovizioso’s garage, this can also apply to Danilo Petrucci, 22nd and last in the combined standings.
"It was difficult to ride today but I expected it, especially due to the fact that in the afternoon we decided not to use the soft tyre. I'm trying to figure out how to have grip and stability, the wind didn't help but we understand a few things. In general, I'm not worried: the tyre that works best at the moment is the soft one, which I haven't used yet ”.
However, Petrucci has not lost hope, and he is aware that he is able to get back to fighting with the group…
“Tomorrow there should be less wind, which would basically help us, and I will have a lot of soft tyres to understand and use. I'm not far off, I think we can have a good race. Zarco was quick, so it would be interesting to understand how he did it, but other bikes are able to use the tyres better. "
