Fifth Row Start for Dovizioso at COTA

02-10-2021

Fifth Row Start for Dovizioso at COTA

Tomorrow’s AmericasGP will see Andrea Dovizioso line up 14th on the grid, with Valentino Rossi 20th.

After an impressive performance in only his second GP with PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team, Andrea Dovizioso will start the Grand Prix of the Americas from 14th on the grid, while a crash meant Valentino Rossi ended Qualifying at COTA 20th.

It proved to be a tough FP3 for Dovizioso, who was able to consistently improve his time in today’s session – setting a 2mins 5.310secs lap – but was unable to better his time from yesterday. He ended FP3 17th and was 18th overall. The Italian started Q1 by putting in a solid banker lap, before pushing hard in the final moments of the session. ‘Dovi’ looked set to challenge for a Q2 place, but ended Q1 fourth with a 2mins 4.044secs lap – securing a place on the fifth row of the grid in 14th.

Biding his time until the final 15 minutes of FP3 to do his time attack run, Rossi was able to improve his time with each lap to ultimately set a best time of 2mins 4.860secs. This saw him end the session in 15th. The Italian’s early Q1 laps saw him towards the sharp end of the times with a time of 2mins 4.699secs. Unfortunately a Turn 6 crash on his final flying lap meant that Valentino was unable to improve further and, after placing tenth in Q1, will start tomorrow’s race 20th.

Warm up will get underway for Dovizioso and Rossi at 9.40am local time (10.40pm MYT) tomorrow, while the AmericasGP coming to a conclusion at 2pm local time (3am MYT) with the 20-lap MotoGP race.

Andrea Dovizioso

"It has been a bit better today, but I’m still not riding in the way that I need to. However, step-by-step I’m able to understand the bike a bit more. I am happy with today because I am getting closer to some of the other riders, but I think it will be hard to battle with them in the race tomorrow because I’m not as strong in that situation. It will be important to adapt to the bike because I want to battle with other riders. It’s not the strongest on the back straight, but it is what it is and at this moment I just have to use the bike to its best potential. I’m not completely doing that yet, so I need to focus on that tomorrow and see what happens in the race."

Valentino Rossi

"The crash in Q1 was a real shame because I did a good lap time with the first tyre, but with the second one I had the potential to improve and unfortunately I lost the front. I was stuck in traffic and there was a lot of confusion, so it wasn’t easy. My starting position means that tomorrow will be very difficult, plus my pace is not fantastic. I think that it will be a very demanding race, but we will try to make some overtakes and we will see what happens. Compared to yesterday we have improved our pace a lot and we were able to work on the race tyres. The choice is very open for the rear tyre; it will depend on the temperature and conditions tomorrow. We have some things to improve, to be stronger, for the race and we’ll see."