Ducati Team riders Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone finished the first day of free practice for the Spanish Grand Prix in seventh and eleventh place respectively in the combined standings.

During both of Friday’s sessions, the two factory Ducati men complained about a lack of grip at the rear and, despite improving their times in the afternoon’s FP2 run, they are still not entirely satisfied with the set-up of their Desmosedici GP machines.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team # 04) – 1’40.737 (7th)

“Today we found the conditions a bit unusual, and we still have to get used to the behaviour of the tyres, seeing as this is what makes the biggest difference. In the afternoon we tried a different front tyre and the bike’s behaviour improved. The rear tyre is still hard to manage however and we must continue to work to improve traction. When we are on used tyres, we are closer to the leaders, but we’re still lacking the pace to stay with them”.

Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team #29) – 1’41.017 (11th)

“Today the situation was rather complicated, and we struggled a bit in setting up the bike. We will have to continue to work and try and improve the way the bike behaves, and above all find more traction at the rear because the lack of grip is really penalizing me. Together with the team, we will try and understand what to do to resolve the problem, and I will also try and adapt my riding style to be more efficient tomorrow”.