Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso was satisfied with his pace on Friday and his returning teammate Cal Crutchlow pleased to be back in action at the Gran Premio bwin de España.

Dovizioso finished the first day in Jerez fifth on the overall timesheet, with his 1’40.028s time in FP2 leaving him 0.671s off Aleix Espargaro’s best lap of the day.

“I’m happy because I expected today to be more difficult and our pace is not too far from the fastest riders,” Dovizioso stated. “I think we’re in the ‘second group’ at the moment and I feel quite positive about that.”

When asked about the departure of Bridgestone from MotoGP™ at the end of 2015, which will mean a different supplier coming into the premier class, Dovizioso commented, “When you change the tyres anything can happen, it could be really positive or really negative, you just don’t know before you use it. In the two years ahead I think many things will change for Ducati, but if we had to change the tyre now, for example, I think for the teams who are further back it could be a positive point. But it could also be negative so anything could happen.”

On his return to riding, having missed the trip to Argentina, Friday’s 18th fastest rider Crutchlow admitted, “I was surprised because I thought the hand would be more sore than it is. It is very sore for changing direction but on braking it’s not so bad. We can’t put pressure on it immediately, which is what we need to do with a Grand Prix bike.”

“It seemed like everyone else is more up to speed than me having raced five days ago, so it will take me a little bit of time to get into it.”


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