Andrea Dovizioso has declared his pace on the opening day of MotoGP practice at Valencia is not good enough to try and challenge Marc Marquez for the win in Sunday’s race as Ducati’s mid-corner problems are holding him back.
The Italian is struggling to get the bike settled mid-corner and is losing time to not only Marquez but also team-mate Dani Pedrosa. The pair have the best pace over race distance but Dovzioso expected this to happen at the Spanish track.
Over a single lap Dovizoso is fast, finishing third on the combined timesheets, using a soft rear - which he could race - to set a 1'30.949 - a tenth behind Pedrosa with Jorge Lorenzo at the top of the tree.
“I am happy with the position of today, but I know what we did today is good but it is not enough. For sure Dani and Marc have a better pace than everybody else, with used tyres. This is what we expected so I am no surprised about that. This is the reality at the moment,” said Dovizioso, speaking at the track.
"I am not smooth enough when I make my pace so we have to focus on that and we know that it will be very important to make 30 laps in a constant way.
“Mid-corner not so fast. Especially the line, the position I am on the exit I am not happy, I can't pick up the bike and exit in a smooth way. I can't do what I want and that is very important but it is not easy to fix."
