MotoGP: ‘Virtually useless day’ for championship leader Dovi

Joint championship leader Andrea Dovizioso has described the first day of MotoGP action at Motorland Aragon as ‘virtually useless,’ as rain fell in both of the day’s practice sessions despite the weather forecast giving a dry remainder of the weekend.

The Italian, who currently sits joint top of the points table with Marc Marquez, says that the changing forecast for tomorrow means that today means there wasn’t much point to the day for them as he came home in eighth.

“Today we weren’t very lucky because it started to rain just before each session and this made the day virtually useless. We worked a bit on the electronics, but as there was too little water on the track and the tyres wore out very quickly so we only did the required number of laps to set a top-ten time and tomorrow we’ll have to start from scratch.”

However, teammate Jorge Lorenzo was much happier with his day’s action, coming home in a strong second place despite the rain.

“I’m satisfied with my day because I was one of the quickest riders both in the morning and the afternoon, but the conditions in both sessions were very strange. The track surface was neither dry nor completely wet, so it is very difficult to draw any important conclusions after practice.

“I would have preferred to lap in dry conditions but just when we were about to go out on track it began to rain. Luckily the forecast for tomorrow says the weather is going to be good so we should have a chance to work better.”