Today’s qualifying session for the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez didn’t fully show the potential of Andrea Dovizioso today. With race tyres he was able to record one of the best laps of the day and this makes the whole team think positively for the race tomorrow, which for Andrea will be a race of maximum attack! Although Dovi will be not in a good position on the starting grid, his character for the race will be aggressive as he tries to make places up on the leaders in the early laps. Thanks to his set-up in race-trim, the whole JiR Team Scot squad are still confident for tomorrow’s race.
Cirano Mularoni – Team Manager, JiR Team Scot
“The balance of the day has to be absolutely positive because we are very confident for the race and this is the most important thing. The tyre chosen by Andrea for the race tomorrow allowed him to go out on the track today and set a very fast, consistent pace, which will be incredibly important for the race tomorrow. Unfortunately our start position doesn’t help us that much! It’s clear that in qualifying configuration we need to do better, because we know our potential, but at least tomorrow we can look forward to being very competitive in race trim.”
Andrea Dovizioso – Rider, JiR Team Scot MotoGP
Best time: 13th - 1’ 39.767”
“In any other condition to start so far back should be considered a bad result, but I have to say that things are very positive as we are in good shape in race trim as we’ve found the right Michelin tyre that allows me to keep a good, consistent pace. We need to work a little bit more on corner entrance speed but I do think we can make a good race. I want to make a good start and try and gain some positions and not lose contact with the leaders, that’s my aim early on in tomorrow’s race. It won’t be easy, but in any case I do have a chance to do well thanks to our good race set-up. Jerez is a difficult circuit to overtake on, which is why my strategy must be to attack all the time! As usual the team has worked very hard and from this morning to this afternoon we improved a lot and this hard work allows me to say that we still have the potential of a good race tomorrow.”
Gianni Berti – Technical Co-ordinator, JiR Team Scot
“We worked hard in free practice to find correct configuration for the bike for the race and let me say that we found it! We were working on the setting of the chassis to give Andrea the perfect compromise and also to get rid of the little problem we have had under braking. We also found a good setting on the RC212V to give us good traction. We obviously know we have to do better in qualifying, which will allow us to make the step to be in a better position on the next starting grid at Estoril.”
Gran Prix of Spain – MotoGP – Final Qualifying:
1) Jorge Lorenzo - Yamaha 1’38”189
2) Dani Pedrosa - Honda 1’38”789
3) Colin Edwards - Yamaha 1’38”954
4) Nicky Hayden - Honda 1’39”061
5) Valentino Rossi - Yamaha 1’39”064
13) Andrea Dovizioso - Honda 1’39”767
