MotoGP 2015, Qatar Qualifying: Andrea Dovizioso takes stunning debut pole for Ducati’s new bike
DUCATI’s Andrea Dovizioso has toppled the might of Marc Marquez and Honda to secure the first pole position of the MotoGP season in Qatar.
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DUCATI have toppled the might of Marc Marquez and Honda to secure the first pole position of the MotoGP season, with Andrea Dovizioso topping qualifying in Qatar.
The Italian made full use of the softer tyre afforded to Ducati under MotoGP’s rules in setting a scorching 1m54.113s lap, barely two tenths slower than Jorge Lorenzo’s absolute fastest lap of the Losail circuit from 2008, and over two tenths faster than his rivals.
The next quickest bike was indeed a Repsol Honda, but not the one belonging to Marc Marquez.
Dani Pedrosa upstaged his reigning world champion teammate to qualify second for Sunday night’s race, with Marquez filling out the front row in third place.
Watch every minute of MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 warm-up and racing LIVE in HD from Qatar on Sunday at 11:35pm EDT on FOX SPORTS 506.
Ducati have introduced a brand new bike for the 2015 season, the Desmosedici GP15, which the team had hoped had cured the handling problems reported by the team’s riders, dating back to the Casey Stoner era.
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“I am very pleased because today’s pole position is the result of the work of an entire team of people,” Dovizioso said.
“After two years in which we have suffered, finally we have succeeded in making a really competitive bike, and to be honest I did not think that we would be immediately so fast with the GP15.”
Although his pole-winning time was set with the soft tyre, Dovizioso believes he will be a genuine threat in the race.
“With the soft tyre, we managed to set a really awesome time, but even in the fourth free practice session with the medium tyre the feeling with the GP15 was something special, so I’m confident and I think that tomorrow we can fight for the podium,” he said.
Ducatis will also start from fourth and fifth on the grid, with Dovizioso’s teammate Andrea Iannone heading weekend surprise packet Yonny Hernandez, the Columbian rider scoring his best-ever MotoGP starting position with fifth place on the satellite Desmosedici run by the Pramac team.
A fleet of Yamahas were next, led by Jorge Lorenzo, with Tech 3 rider Bradley Smith out qualifying Valentino Rossi as the trio locked out sixth through eighth.
Although factory riders Lorenzo and Rossi were just 0.6 and 0.7s shy of the pole-winning lap, both are wary of being able to match the Hondas’ or Ducatis’ race-pace.
“My position is not so bad, considering that a lot of riders have an extra tyre,” Lorenzo said.
“We have to work. We don‘t know what’s going to happen tomorrow on the long distance with the softer tyre.”
Danilo Petrucci and Pol Espargaro rounded out the top 10 on satellite Ducati and satellite Yamaha respectively, while Aleix Espargaro came within 0.031 of a second of giving Suzuki a top-10 qualifying result in the company’s full-time return to MotoGP.
The session was less cheerful for Cal Crutchlow, whose Friday pace suggested he may be a pole position threat. However, a crash on his second qualifying run consigned him to starting from 12th on the grid.
“Thankfully it’s just my pride that is hurt today, but obviously I’m not happy,” the Brit said.
“I made a stupid mistake. The positive is that we were very fast and we had a great chance to get on the front row and my ideal time would have put us there. But hey, that’s racing!”
Australia’s Jack Miller will start his first MotoGP race from 22nd position, ruing a crash of his own early in the session while on a lap that was on track to be faster than his best.
Unhurt, he headed back to the pits and hopped on his spare bike but was unable to improve, missing the cut for Q2 by 1.1 seconds.
RESULTS — Qualifying, MotoGP Round 1, Qatar
1. (4) Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) 1m54.113s
2. (26) Dani Pedrosa (Honda) +0.217s
3. (93) Marc Marquez (Honda) +0.324s
4. (29) Andrea Iannone (Ducati) +0.408s
5. (68) Yonny Hernandez (Ducati) +0.562s
6. (99) Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) +0.598s
7. (38) Bradley Smith (Yamaha) +0.619s
8. (46) Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) +0.738s
9. (9) Danilo Petrucci (Ducati) +0.763s
10. (44) Pol Espargaro (Yamaha) +0.891s
11. (41) Aleix Espargaro (Suzuki) +0.922s
12. (35) Cal Crutchlow (Honda) +1.010s
13. (25) Maverick Vinales (Suzuki) +0.152s (eliminated Q1)
14. (45) Scott Redding (Honda) +0.334s (eliminated Q1)
15. (8) Hector Barbera (Ducati) +0.510s (eliminated Q1)
16. (63) Mike Di Meglio (Ducati) +0.635s (eliminated Q1)
17. (69) Nicky Hayden (Honda) +0.662s (eliminated Q1)
18. (6) Stefan Bradl (Forward Yamaha) +0.697s (eliminated Q1)
19. (50) Eugene Laverty (Honda) +0.754s (eliminated Q1)
20. (17) Karel Abraham (Honda) +0.798s (eliminated Q1)
21. (19) Alvaro Bautista (Aprilia) +1.093s (eliminated Q1)
22. (43) Jack Miller (Honda) +1.193s (eliminated Q1)
23. (76) Loris Baz (Forward Yamaha) +1.360s (eliminated Q1)
24. (15) Alex de Angelis (ART) +1.699s (eliminated Q1)
25. (33) Marco Melandri (Aprilia) +2.840s (eliminated Q1)
Originally published as MotoGP 2015, Qatar Qualifying: Andrea Dovizioso takes stunning debut pole for Ducati’s new bike
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