Difficult Qualifying at Home for Dovizioso and Rossi

23-10-2021

Difficult Qualifying at Home for Dovizioso and Rossi

Andrea Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi to start tomorrow’s EmiliaRomagnaGP from 21st and 23rd respectively.

PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team’s two MotoGP riders experienced tricky and mixed conditions during Qualifying for the Gran Premio Made in Italy e dell’Emilia Romagna, where Andrea Dovizioso was 21st and Valentino Rossi 23rd.

Dovizioso was quick to improve upon his best lap from Friday in FP3, despite the tricky conditions. Continuing to find time around the Misano circuit, the Italian’s best lap – 1min 42.251secs – placed him 22nd at the end of FP3. ‘Dovi’ was quick to continue improving his lap time, but struggled to find his true pace in the mixed conditions. Setting a time of 1min 36.639secs on his final flying lap, he ended Q1 11th and will start tomorrow’s home race from 21st.

FP3 proved to be a difficult session for Rossi, with wet conditions at the start of the 45 minutes that started to improve by the end. The Italian ultimately ended the session 23rd with a 1min 42.601secs lap. Unfortunately his struggles continued in Q1, although he was able to shave some time off of his lap time. After having his final lap deleted, due to a yellow flag infringement, ‘Vale’ ended the session 13th with a 1min 37.948secs lap, which means he will line up 23rd in the final home race of his career.

Dovizioso and Rossi will be back out on track at 10am local time (4pm MYT) tomorrow for Warm Up, before the EmiliaRomagnaGP concludes with the 27-lap MotoGP race at 2pm local time (8pm MYT).

Andrea Dovizioso

"It has been a very difficult weekend for us so far, especially with the weather, and I don’t feel good on the bike. I wasn’t as fast as I wanted to be in Qualifying, where the conditions were half dry and half wet. This isn’t the best for the bike and I didn't have the feeling that allows me to push hard, so the position on the grid isn’t good. It will be hard in the race, but we will try to learn what we can, try to stay with the group and see what we can achieve. It will be hard to overtake the other riders tomorrow, but we will try our best."

Valentino Rossi

"It was very difficult because the conditions were very bad and very tricky for us. I didn’t have a very good feeling with the bike or with the tyres, so I was quite slow. The position is bad for the race, but the forecast for tomorrow is good and that we will have a dry race. I hope it will be like this because if we have normal conditions, where it is completely dry, then I think we can be competitive. This weekend is very emotional for me. A normal weekend in Misano is emotional anyway, but in this situation it becomes even more so. Plus it is difficult because there are a lot of things to do and a lot of requests. I think it will be very emotional tomorrow after the race, when I have the chance to say “ciao” to the fans. I feel good though."