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Factory Ducati riders Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo plan to use the team’s new aerodynamic fairing in Sunday’s MotoGP Czech Grand Prix at Brno.
Pramac Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci was first to test the new fairing, which features a slimmer pair of upper winglets in practice on Friday, and ended the day second fastest.
That led to Lorenzo and Dovizioso both trying it on Saturday, and while both riders agreed the benefits are not huge, they are both keen to keep it for Sunday’s race.
“I didn’t find any negative points,” Lorenzo said. “It’s not so much different from the fairings we were using.
“Some small positive points, so probably I will keep it for the race [but it] was not the biggest improvement today.”
But Dovizioso reckoned the bike’s braking has improved thanks to the revised bodywork.
“Yes, [it] looks like we will use [the new fairing] tomorrow,” he said. “The difference is not clear, it’s always difficult [to understand] when you try something like that.
“It’s difficult to exactly understand the difference. [It] maybe Looks a bit better on the braking, but from the morning to the afternoon we also changed the tyres.
“We didn’t have enough time to make a real comparison, so it’s not clear [which are] the positive things and if there are any negative things.”
Petrucci reverted to the standard fairing in Saturday’s practice sessions after damaging a part of it on Friday, but was able to use the new version again for qualifying and took sixth on the grid.
Dovizioso “didn’t expect” pole position
Dovizioso, who took his first pole position since the 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix, said that his achievement was unexpected, and thought that the sector times he was shown during his lap were incorrect.
“[I’m really happy, I didn’t expect [it],” he said. “I felt good but not like this.
“When I started the last lap, I felt really good support from the bike, was able to brake really hard, and the bike answered in a perfect way.
“During the lap I started to think the intermediates [sector times] were wrong because the laptime was too fast. Sometimes [this] happens.
“[But I’m] really happy about that, really happy about the way we worked. Is very important to start in first practice with good speed to be able to work for the race.
“I don’t know if we can really fight for victory in the race, but the feeling is good.”