Andrea Dovizioso impresses on Ducati in Italian MotoGP practice as Valentino Rossi lags

ANDREA Dovizioso was fastest in practice for the Italian MotoGP as Ducati dominated the session on the Mugello track, less than 100km from their headquarters.

ITALIAN Andrea Dovizioso was fastest in practice for this wekend’s Italian MotoGP as Ducati dominated the session on the Mugello track, less than 100km from their headquarters.

Defending champion Marc Marquez was second fastest on his Honda with fellow Jorge Lorenzo third on a Yamaha.

“We are not going to look at reducing the power and it’s going to be very difficult to adapt the bikes to the fast sections,” said Dovizioso, who almost lost control at the first turn of one of his early laps.

Lorenzo, who won the last two races in Spain and France, said he hopes his team can get more speed out of the Yamaha heading into the weekend.

Andrea Dovizioso has plenty of rivals hot on his tail.

“I’m not completely satisfied with the way the bike is working,” he said.

“Little by little we are going to make progress in most of the corners, but to begin the weekend with second and third place and a good pace is a nice start.

“Let’s see if we can improve the bike and lose half a second in terms of pace tomorrow, because I think it can be much better.”

Andrea Iannone on a Ducati was fourth fastest while championship leader Valentino Rossi was ninth quickest for Yamaha.

“We started the afternoon practice well. I didn’t feel so bad with the bike and I had quite a good pace. I was quite happy, but I had some problems with braking,” said Rossi.

“It looks like Jorge had the best pace, but Dovi is also fast and so is Marquez. It’s only Friday, so it’s too early to say who will be the hardest to beat, but they seem to be in good shape.”

Originally published as Andrea Dovizioso impresses on Ducati in Italian MotoGP practice as Valentino Rossi lags