Dovizioso Unlucky with Rain in Last Qualifying, Binder Improves on Saturday in Misano
Dovizioso Unlucky with Rain in Last Qualifying, Binder Improves on Saturday in Misano
The WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team will start the San Marino Grand Prix from rows six and seven tomorrow.
Variable weather conditions influenced Saturday’s proceedings at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli for round 14 of the MotoGP World Championship 2022, which is Andrea Dovizioso’s farewell round after a long and successful Grand Prix career.
On this grand occasion, the Italian went out with a special helmet today, dedicated to eventful races and seasons of his racing life. With this helmet, he managed to improve on his fastest lap from yesterday already in FP3 by 0.178 seconds, but finished down in P21. In the all-important Qualifying session, he was doing decent lap times in the beginning and came in to change tyres in order to freshly attack on his second run. Yet unfortunately, some rain hit the track in this moment, so Dovizioso was unable to further improve. He ended up in P8 of Q1, which means P18 of the starting grid for his last race.
In the meantime, MotoGP rookie Darryn Binder got further used to the Misano World Circuit today, stepping forward with each session. In FP3, he improved by 0.368 seconds compared to Friday and like his experienced teammate, he was doing well in the first part of Qualifying, until the South African also didn’t get any chance to further improve, when drops of rain made him slow down. He will start from P21 in the seventh row of the grid when the red lights go out tomorrow at 14:00 local time.
Andrea Dovizioso
WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team
“In the afternoon, I think we improved a bit, because my pace with the used tyres was a bit better than in the other sessions. But the feeling on the front is still not at 100%, we’ll try something for that tomorrow in the Warm Up. In Qualifying, I started with a good feeling and I knew I could push more in the second run, but there weren’t the right conditions, so I couldn’t give my maximum. But let’s see what tomorrow brings.”
Darryn Binder
WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team
“I struggled a little bit this morning in FP3 to get the feeling I was looking for with the bike, so we made some quite big changes for FP4. Unfortunately, the weather was playing games with us and it was a bit tricky with some rain drops floating throughout FP4. Anyway, I managed to get some laps in, get a little bit of a feeling and went out to do a good lap in the beginning of Qualifying, but unfortunately, at the end, when we put in the second tyre, it started to drizzle again and we weren’t able to improve. But overall, I feel like I’m starting to get more comfortable on the bike and whatever the weather brings tomorrow, I’ll do my best. I look forward to try to do a good race.”
