Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso says he was “disappointed” and “angry” after being denied a Q2 spot by team-mate Danilo Petrucci utilising his slip-stream during Q1.
Petrucci completed all three of his runs in the first part of qualifying behind Dovizioso, picking up time on the 1.2km long back straight towards the final turn of the Motorland Aragon circuit.
Last weekend’s French GP victor topped Q1 by a tenth-and-a-half as a result of gaining from his team leader’s tow, while Jack Miller managed to slip ahead of Dovizioso by just 0.015 to snatch away the final spot into Q2-leaving him 13th on the grid for the Aragon Grand Prix.
A furious Dovizioso displayed a rare loss of composure by throwing his racing gloves across the garage after touring back into the pits following Q1, the usually-calm Italian subsequently describing Petrucci’s Q1 strategy as “not a smart move” post qualifying.
“I was really disappointed because it was a really difficult weekend until this point because of the temperatures, this afternoon we stayed calm and continued to work and at the end the speed was good,” explained Dovizioso.
“My confidence was high to push in qualifying, I was able to do it (lap quickly) alone and I was satisfied with that.
“I was very disappointed to see the lap-time of Danilo (Petrucci), he did three laps behind me and he didn’t have the speed so to see him do this and get to Q2 without the speed wasn’t a smart move, especially because I’m the only Ducati rider fighting for the championship.
“I was very angry about that.”
The three-time MotoGP vice champion added that it would be “very difficult” to recover from his fourth row starting spot, earmarking tyre degradation as a key theme to look out for during the 23 lap encounter.
“This year-especially with this tyre- it’s very difficult to start towards the back and recover positions, everybody is fast and the tyre degradation will be really high,” continued Dovizioso.
“I think it will be harder than last year, because we have a good speed but not enough to be ahead of the top riders.
“We will try to have a great start, the race is long and the tyre degradation will be important to focus on.”
