Andrea Dovizioso said he is very happy to be on the front row of the grid for tomorrows MotoGP race, but he was very critical about the new Silverstone tarmac.

The Italian was piped to the pole position by his factory Ducati team-mate Jorge Lorenzo in the closing stages of qualifying. Despite starting from second and not pole, Dovizioso was extremely happy to be at the front helping him avoid trouble with the short run down to turn one and the prospect of rain.

“It was very difficult conditions because we stay for a long time in the box with adrenaline and concentration going down and it wasn’t too easy to start in strange conditions and make a good lap time,” said the factory Ducati man.

“So I am really happy about the result, it was really important to start in the front two rows, especially here because the start is very short and maybe tomorrow will be wet, so to start in front for sure can help us.

“I’m happy, was a strange qualifying because to push in three quarters of the track on wet tyres was very difficult, especially on the front. But at the end we did a good lap time, we did a good strategy, we didn’t take a lot of risk so we used two tyres and at the end it was the right strategy.”

In the off chance that the rescheduling means tomorrows race is run in the dry, Dovizioso is confident with his pace, although he doesn’t think he is the fastest man in dry conditions.

“I’m happy because I have a good confidence in the dry. Maybe Maverick have a few tenths faster in the dry, but we are there, we have a chance to fight with him and some other riders,” he said.

“But lets see the weather tomorrow. Because it will affect a lot the race, lets see if we have heavy rain. Like Jorge says if we have heavy rain I think we will be on the limit.”

FP4 saw multiple riders aquaplaning into the gravel at Stowe with Tito Rabat coming off worse with the satellite Ducati man undergoing emergency surgery this evening for a severely broken leg. Dovizioso didn’t mince his words when it came to the condition of the track and the new surface, saying that after resurfacing the circuit the conditions are now worse than they were before.

“We have to see if the rain will be constant or worse than today. Today it didn’t rain a lot but it was enough to create a problem,” said Dovizioso.

“I think sometimes its happened in other tracks, when they resurface the track they created more problems than before. I am not involved so I don’t want to speak about details because I don’t know.

“But for sure there is a possibility to make this in a better way. It happened already in a different track. I think we somebody have to spend a lot of money its better to spend a bit more and not have these kind of problems or if you resurface completely the track and have more bumps than before, then something’s happened.

“I don’t know what, I’m not the right guy to speak about this in the details, but I think this doesn’t have to happen. Because if there is a race and we have this quantity of problems about aquaplaning its too much. Because the water today wasn’t something impossible.”

When asked if the heavy rain made it impossible to race in, Dovizioso said that a decision like that would have to be made at the time when they can see how much water is on track.

“About the race we have to decide in the moment how much water will be on the track and we will make some laps and for sure the riders will decide like in the past,” he said.