MotoGP title contender Andrea Dovizioso says his crash in fourth practice at Phillip Island was behind his disappointing run to 11th in qualifying for tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix.
Dovizioso fell at the Lukey Heights corner during FP4 before going on to finish second-to-last in Q2, trailing pacesetter and championship rival Marc Marquez by 1.110-seconds.
The Ducati rider explained that he didn’t have a positive feeling aboard his Desmosedici bike after the crash, and that he made “three mistakes” during his fastest lap.
When asked why he could qualify no better than 11th, Dovizioso said: “It is a consequence of the crash.
“If we check my pace yesterday and today in FP4 it was quite good.
“The only riders who went fast with the medium [tyre] were Marc, [Johann] Zarco and me.
“All the other riders on the medium were quite slow – so I think we confirmed a good speed.
“But most of the riders used the soft tyre and in qualifying I didn’t have a perfect feeling to make a good laptime.
“Phillip Island has a strange characteristic – you have to be so confident and take a lot of speed in the fast corners.
“If you don’t have a really good feeling it is so easy to lose tenths corner-by-corner and this is what happened.
“With [that] bad feeling I did three mistakes on my fastest lap.
“I was able to make a better laptime – [I’m giving] no excuses, but the reality about the pace in the race is completely different.”
Lorenzo “even less competitive” than on Friday
Dovizioso’s team-mate Jorge Lorenzo was eliminated in Q1 and will start the race from 16th place.
He claimed after qualifying that all the Ducati riders, except Dovizioso, were struggling more than usual at Phillip Island.
“We didn’t start very well yesterday, but today in general was worse,” Lorenzo said.
“We were not competitive, even less competitive than yesterday.
“It’s not our track. Dovi is in very good shape with the bike, mentally he’s strong, he’s doing well.
“He crashed in FP4 so he probably lost a bit of confidence. But he’s riding really well.
“The rest of the Ducatis, we are mostly struggling more than [at] other tracks.”
Lorenzo also had a crash in the wet third practice session, hurting his ankle, but reckons he can manage the pain during the race.
“I feel pain in the ankle [when] walking,” he said. “On the bike I’m not the same as yesterday but I can manage.
“The problem is you cannot push with the foot so much – you have to use the upper body more – so you get more tired [as] everything has a consequence.
“[It’s] not going to be easy, [the race is] a lot of laps on a very physical track.
“It’s going to be tough, but we have to do our best.”