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On his last appearance of the season on the 'outdated' YZR-M1 of Team Petronas SRT, qualifying at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia brought a half smile to Andrea Dovizioso. While in the previous round at Portimao he had declared that "he had not come back just to make up the numbers" after an anonymous performance on Saturday, today he quickly climbed the rankings, so much so as to capture an encouraging 13th position with the benchmark time of 1'30.859, just 71 thousandths away from entry into the decisive Q2.
“In this type of track, our bike works very well, I'm having more than positive feelings. I’m lacking a bit of rear grip, a crucial aspect here, but in any case I am satisfied as I am just two tenths behind Fabio Quartararo - he pointed out - clearly our goals are different, but we can be happy with the progress made in comparison to the previous races. The overall feeling is improving; it is no coincidence that I set my best time alone ".
Never so 'high' since returning to the premier class of the World Championship, the 35-year-old hopes to finish 2021 in the most dignified way possible, waiting to (finally) try Iwata's four-cylinder in its updated version.
“Looking at our current speed, I believe that a top 10 finish could be an achievable goal. Unfortunately, as I still don't have the bike perfectly in my hands, I'm afraid of excessively wearing out the rear tyre. So, I don't know if I will be able to be competitive for the entire duration of the race. Some riders will try the hard spec, but in principle I think we will all use the same tyre, that is the medium one ".
Tomorrow’s race will coincide with the farewell to racing by Valentino Rossi, current team mate of the 2004 125cc Champion. What will the riders organize to say farewell to the Doctor?
“I can't let you know (laughs). We will certainly do something, wait and see", he jokingly concluded.
