Friday proved to be a day of positives for Ducati Team, as both bikes finished inside the top ten; with Dovizioso fifth and Nicky Hayden eighth fastest.

“I’m so happy, especially with the gap to the fastest,” Dovizioso, who ended the day a third of a second off the top spot, told motogp.com. “I didn’t expect that with the Soft because I had been concentrating on working with the Hard, while most of the fastest riders were working with the Soft - so until now I hadn’t had the right feedback.”


Before the new-look qualifying sessions take place on Saturday, the MotoGP™ field will be allowed half an hour of free practice time.

“We have to think about Free Practice 4,” the Italian began to sum up, “and if we should do a few laps on the Softs to understand the lifespan. I think most of the riders are thinking about that.”

Generally, the fourth free practice session – which has no bearing on who will contest Q1 or Q2 – is expected to be half of hour of configuring race setups.

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