At the end of Friday’s free practice sessions, held in partially sunny weather – with temperatures around 25 degrees in the atmosphere and 40 on the tarmac – Andrea Dovizioso finished in ninth position in 1:21.489.
The Ducati Team rider worked on race pace ahead of Sunday focusing on tyre wear, a variable that at Sachsenring – which features 10 left-hand corners out of 13 in total and a race distance of 30 laps – often turned out to be decisive towards the final results. Dovizioso improved by nine tenths of a second off his best lap time to post a 1:21.489 with a hard rear tyre in the afternoon.
Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 1:21.489 (9th)
“We’ve been able to progressively improve our performance but, at the moment, we still haven’t reached the competitiveness we’re aiming for. In particular, we’re struggling a bit with corner speed but I’m not too worried because it’s only Friday and we still have plenty of time to work on the bike. I wasn’t able to ride a ‘clean’ lap towards the end, also because I’m still suffering a bit due to a small issue with my back, and I preferred not to push too hard in the final laps and instead pace myself ahead of the rest of the weekend. For sure we’ll be quicker tomorrow morning, but so will be our rivals. We just need to stay focused and keep working, on consistency even more so than pure speed, because the race distance is 30 laps here.”