Just five days after racing in the Indianapolis GP, Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden were back on track today in the first two free-practice sessions for the Czech Republic GP.
Neither Ducati Team rider was able to find a good setup for his Desmosedici GP13, as both complained of a lack of grip on the fast, flowing Brno circuit. At day’s end, Dovizioso and Hayden sat ninth and tenth, respectively, in the combined times, determined to work with their teams tomorrow morning to make better headway ahead of qualifying.
Andrea Dovizioso - Ducati Team, 9th (1:57.754)
“The afternoon session was very strange, because we suffered a big loss of grip. Honestly, I thought there was something wrong with my bike because I didn’t expect such a big difference compared to this morning. We tried a number of things in an effort to understand if there was some problem, so we weren’t able to follow the planned work program for the session. Unfortunately, when the temperature rises, it affects us Ducati riders more than the others, and it becomes much more difficult to ride the bike well.”
Nicky Hayden - Ducati Team, 10th (1:57.896)
“It wasn’t a very positive day. This morning we weren’t so far off, but in the afternoon I struggled with a lack of grip, problems turning, and chatter. I also made some mistakes with my riding and was running wide. Now we need to understand exactly where to go with the bike’s setup and try to do a much better job tomorrow.”
Ducati Team Press Release
