2017 Austria MotoGP Friday Results: Ducati’s Dovi Tops Practice

2017 Austria MotoGP Friday Results: Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso
Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso

2017 Austria MotoGP Friday Practice Results from Red Bull Ring

Just as he did last week during Friday’s free practice at Brno, Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso opened up a weekend of GP racing with the fastest times.

After being shut down by Reale Avintia Racing Ducati’s Hector Barbera in morning practice at Austria’s Red Bull Ring, the Italian took advantage of the dry track and was quickest in the second free practice.

Dovi’s time of 1:24.046 was quicker last year’s Circuit Record Lap (1:24.561, under race conditions, Andrea Iannone, Ducati Team GP16), but nearly a second slower than last season’s Best Lap (all track sessions, 1:23.142, Iannone).

2017 Austria MotoGP Friday Results: Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso
Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso

When Friday’s 2017 Austria MotoGP practice sessions were complete, Dovizioso claimed the provisional pole 0.234 of a second ahead of Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Maverick Vinales, and 0.428 ahead of Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa.

“I’m very pleased with the way things went today and we couldn’t have had a better start to the weekend,” Dovizioso says. “The Ducati Corse engineers have done a really good job with the new fairing, which on this track is working very well, and we have managed to get close to the effect of last year’s winglets, confirming our speed in two different conditions, both this morning and this afternoon, when there wasn’t much grip. But now we have to work on some details because it’s the tire wear that will make all the difference in the race rather than sheer speed, just like last year.”

Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Johann Zarco finished fourth, ahead of Ducati Team’s Jorge Lorenzo, who took four tenths off his morning’s best.

2017 Austria MotoGP Friday Results: Yamaha's Valentino Rossi
Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi

Barbera couldn’t gain on his morning time, and had to settle for sixth quickest. He finished ahead of fellow countryman and current points leader who won last week at Brno MotoGP, Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez.

Rounding out the top 10 were LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini’s Aleix Espargaro and Octo Pramac Racing Ducati’s Scott Redding.

As for nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi, who led Monday’s Brno MotoGP practice, the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP pilot finished 13th overall, 0.837 of a second off the pace.

Qualifying for 2017 Austria MotoGP gets underway Saturday at 2:10 p.m. local time.

Photo by Luciano Bianchetto

2017 Austria MotoGP Friday Practice Results from Red Bull Ring (combined times):

Pos. Rider Time
1 Andrea Dovizioso 01’24.046
2 Maverick Viñales 01’24.280
3 Daniel Pedrosa 01’24.474
4 Johann Zarco 01’24.522
5 Jorge Lorenzo 01’24.616
6 Hector Barbera 01’24.631
7 Marc Marquez 01’24.649
8 Cal Crutchlow 01’24.688
9 Aleix Espargaro 01’24.726
10 Scott Redding 01’24.765
11 Alvaro Bautista 01’24.780
12 Pol Espargaro 01’24.859
13 Valentino Rossi 01’24.883
14 Loris Baz 01’24.925
15 Danilo Petrucci 01’24.935
16 Jonas Folger 01’24.992
17 Andrea Iannone 01’25.218
18 Sam Lowes 01’25.270
19 Mika Kallio 01’25.320
20 Jack Miller 01’25.335
21 Karel Abraham 01’25.369
22 Alex Rins 01’25.452
23 Tito Rabat 01’25.616
24 Bradley Smith 01’25.664

 

2017 Austria MotoGP Friday Practice Results: Photo Gallery