Second home GP of the season at Misano begins for Rossi and Dovizioso

The second GP of the year at Misano got underway for PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team today with mixed conditions for Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso, who ended the Gran Premio Made in Italy e dell’Emilia Romagna opening day 22nd and 24th respectively.

Rossi, who is competing in his final home GP this weekend, had a good start to FP1, before opting to stay in the garage for a time as heavy rain fell. Heading back out for the final 12 minutes, he ended FP1 12th with a 1min 44.751secs lap. The afternoon’s FP2 session saw the sun come out and the track start to dry, so Valentino waited until the end of the 45 minutes to set his fastest lap of the day – 1min 43.789secs –, which placed him 22nd in both FP2 and overall.

Also enjoying a home GP, Dovizioso had a steady start to FP1 and took his time in acclimatising to the wet conditions. After sitting out of the worst of the rain, the Italian set a 1min 45.881secs time on his final lap and ended FP1 21st. Andrea was quick to improve upon his morning time and at the halfway point of FP2 his fastest lap was 1min 44.643secs. ‘Dovi’ was unable to better this time in the second half of the session and ended FP2, and the day, 24th.

Tomorrow’s track action for Rossi and Dovizioso will begin with FP3 at 9.55am local time (3.55pm MYT), and end with the two MotoGP Qualifying sessions at 2.10pm local time (8.10pm MYT).

Valentino Rossi
22nd (1’43.789)

I have mixed feelings about today. I was happy this morning and we started the day quite well because I was quite fast in the wet, where there was a lot of water on track, and I was able to ride in a good way. I also was not too far from the top-ten. Unfortunately in the afternoon, when there was less water and the track was starting to dry, I suffered in the mixed conditions. The bike was difficult to ride in places and I lost a lot of grip, it wasn’t the best session for us. The forecast is mixed for tomorrow and I hope we can have a dry day, but if it rains then I hope it is like this morning because I think we are more competitive in those conditions.

Andrea Dovizioso
24th (1’44.643)

I didn’t feel too good in the wet conditions and we are struggling a lot with grip, so that’s why I’m not as fast as I’d like. Today we faced two different conditions in the two sessions and I didn’t make a good lap time in either of them. We have some work to do tonight to be better tomorrow. My target is to work towards the top-ten by the end of the season, but I don’t think this will be possible here at Misano. I’m still not completely used to the bike, so it will be difficult to make a perfect lap tomorrow to be in that top-ten. We’ve done one race here already and the test after that, so what we learned then should help me tomorrow and Sunday.

MotoGP Results
Misano – Combined Practice