Lorenzo's progress on the Ducati continues, with a good second place on this first day of free practice on the Montmelo circuit, promising for the qualifying session and, why not, for the race.
During the morning session, Jorge did not push himself due to inconsistent track grip, and he was content with the thirteenth performance in 1'48.111, 2.236 behind the best time of Marc Marquez. This put him about a second and a half behind his teammate Andrea Dovizioso, without it causing the slightest worry.
On a track in much better condition in the afternoon, Lorenzo significantly improved his morning time to 1'44.700, or 0.222 behind leader Marc Marquez's time. The Ducati seemed to adapt well to the Catalan circuit because in addition to Jorge's second time, we found Andrea Dovizioso in fourth position and Danilo Petrucci in fifth place.
Lorenzo can therefore logically hope to improve his best place on the grid with his Ducati, which has so far been the sixth Austin, while he started from seventh place at Mugello and eighth at Jerez.
According to Jorge Lorenzo, “ It's still too early to draw conclusions, but we started well and managed to be fast on all the tires we tried, both hard at the start of the session and soft at the end.
“It is very difficult to assess the pace of the other riders, but in any case we still have to improve, especially in the third sector where the bike moves a lot more than during the test and where we are still not very fast. »
Results of the first day of free practice revised:
1 Marc MARQUEZ-Repsol Honda Team-Honda 1'44.478
2 Jorge LORENZO-Ducati Team-Ducati 1'44.700
3 Jonas FOLGER-Monster Yamaha Tech 3-Yamaha 1'44.839
4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO-Ducati Team-Ducati 1'44.883
5 Danilo PETRUCCI-OCTO Pramac Racing-Ducati 1'44.890
6 Johann ZARCO-Monster Yamaha Tech 3-Yamaha 1'45.063
7 Dani PEDROSA-Repsol Honda Team-Honda 1'45.098
8 Alvaro BAUTISTA-Pull&Bear Aspar Team-Ducati 1'45.116
9 Valentino ROSSI-Movistar Yamaha MotoGP-Yamaha 1'45.118
10 Hector BARBERA-Reale Avintia Racing-Ducati 1'45.311
11 Scott REDDING-OCTO Pramac Racing-Ducati 1'45.375
12 Andrea IANNONE-Team SUZUKI ECSTAR-Suzuki 1'45.465
13 Aleix ESPARGARO-Aprilia Racing Team Gresini-Aprilia 1'45.554
14 Loris BAZ-Reale Avintia Racing-Ducati 1'45.755
15 Sam LOWES-Aprilia Racing Team Gresini-Aprilia 1'45.760
16 Maverick VIÑALES-Movistar Yamaha MotoGP-Yamaha 1'45.810
17 Jack MILLER-EG 0,0 Marc VDS-Honda 1'45.868
18 Karel ABRAHAM-Pull&Bear Aspar Team-Ducati 1'45.932
19 Cal CRUTCHLOW-LCR Honda-Honda 1'45.967
20 Tito RABAT-EG 0,0 Marc VDS-Honda 1'46.229
21 Pol ESPARGARO-Red Bull KTM Factory Racing-KTM 1'46.946
22 Sylvain GUINTOLI-Team SUZUKI ECSTAR-Suzuki 1'47.002
23 Bradley SMITH-Red Bull KTM Factory Racing-KTM 1'47.892
Provisional ranking of the World Championship:
1 Maverick VIÑALES-Yamaha 105 points
2 Andrea DOVIZIOSO-Ducati 79
3 Valentino ROSSI-Yamaha 75
4 Marc MARQUEZ-Honda 68
5 Dani PEDROSA-Honda 68
6 Johann ZARCO-Yamaha 64
7 Jorge LORENZO-Ducati 46
8 Danilo PETRUCCI-Ducati 42
9 Jonas FOLGER-Yamaha 41
10 Cal CRUTCHLOW-Honda 40
Photos © Ducati
