Andrea Dovizioso says the difficult cornering “DNA” of the Ducati “remains”, after securing his worst MotoGP qualifying result of the season for the Australian Grand Prix with ninth.
Dovizioso highlighted Phillip Island as one of Ducati's biggest tests of its improvements with the GP18, after no Desmosedici made it into the top 10 at the track for the first time since 2006 last year.
Fourth at the end of Friday's running, Dovizioso was only 10th in FP3, while he muster just ninth in qualifying, 1.4 seconds adrift of poleman Marc Marquez.
Dovizioso says the sprinkling of rain in Q2 hindered his charge, but admits Ducati are “struggling” for pace at Phillip Island.
“I didn't make a really, in the first run, good laptime and I exit quite early on the second run to try to make the laptime immediately, but it start to rain immediately,” the Italian said.
“So I couldn't try to improve my laptime. Ninth is not our position, but we are struggling a little bit.
“We are faster than last year, when we make the pace the speed is not too bad – not like the fastest guys, but not too far, so not as bad as last year.
“But still our DNA remains, and we are struggling, especially when the win become very strong like today. In the middle of the corner it is very difficult.
“It was important to race here after a lot of good results, because this confirms where we have to improve. Anyway, we have to await the race, it will be a really important test.”
Unfamiliar gearbox causes Bautista's Q2 crash
Alvaro Bautista endured a tough Friday on the works GP18 as Jorge Lorenzo's substitute, after encountering a technical issue with one of his bikes in FP1 before crashing in the second session.
The Spaniard eased through Q1 and started strongly in the pole shootout session, before a heavy crash at MG corner early on, which he blamed on not being “used to the gear change” of the GP18, ended his session prematurely.
“Overall today was better than yesterday, even though I had a really bad crash after a few laps in Q2,” said Bautista, who will line up 12th.
“I’m still not used to the gear change of the GP18, a wrong gear went in when I was braking and the bike didn’t stop.
“I wasn’t able to prevent the crash but I’m okay, just a few scrapes on my back. I believe we’re working well and even though the weather conditions with the wind and the cold are not the best, we’ve made a good step forward.
“In Q1 I felt good on the bike and I lapped quickly, improving lap after lap. Tomorrow it’ll be important to get a good start because the first few laps on this circuit are fundamental and then during the race, we’ll have to administer the tyre wear, which will be another key factor in getting a good result.”
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