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Indianapolis GP: Hayden improves to sixth on grid, Dovizioso tenth
The Ducati Team riders made good progress today in the decisive final qualifying session for the Indianapolis GP, with the tenth round of the MotoGP world championship set to take place tomorrow at legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Following a challenging Friday that had seen Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso finish in ninth and tenth positions, respectively, things improved today for the Kentucky rider, who enjoyed one of his best qualifying sessions of the year so far, lowering his time by over a second to take the sixth spot on the grid for his home GP. He’ll start the race on the second row.
Dovizioso, despite cutting his time by one second, made a couple of mistakes on his fast lap and will start tomorrow’s race from the fourth row, in tenth place.
Nicky Hayden - Ducati Team, 6th (1:39.142)
“All in all, I’m satisfied. Sixth on the grid isn’t a bad result, and my fast lap was the best I’ve been able to do this weekend. We made some changes for FP4 but they didn’t work so well, so I wasn’t too calm between sessions, but as soon as I went out for Q2, I felt a lot better. We’ve got a couple ideas for tomorrow to smooth it out over the bumps and help it to change directions better. The weather has been good so far, and we’re quite a bit faster than we’ve ever been around here, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
Andrea Dovizioso - Ducati Team, 10th (1:39.555)
“I’m not pleased with my qualifying lap because I made a few too many mistakes. It’s a shame, because I’m sure I could’ve done a better time. During my ‘good’ lap, I made mistakes in turns 2 and 3; I closed the front twice and came close to crashing. After that, I wanted to attack the track, but there was no grip and I wasn’t able to do a perfect lap. Nicky did a nice time, and I think I could’ve done that as well. I’m disappointed to have the tenth position, on row four, but apart from the position, I think we have the right pace to battle with Nicky’s group. This is a very strange track without much grip, so I need to believe in myself and try to make up some positions on the start.”