Dovizioso: Buriram good for our bike, my style
For most of Friday’s running in Buriram, Thailand, the MotoGP timesheets resembled large chunks of 2017, with Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso comfortably leading proceedings, with the Italian later stating the track is well suited to Ducati’s GP18.
Dovizioso had two ’18-spec bikes in his garage on the first day of testing at the Chang International Circuit but the long-awaited updated chassis was not fitted on either machine. Instead, the Italian sampled revamped aerodynamic fairings in the afternoon. The new frame, he said, would have to wait until Saturday.
For most of Friday’s running in Buriram, Thailand, the MotoGP timesheets resembled large chunks of 2017, with Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso comfortably leading proceedings, with the Italian later stating the track is well suited to Ducati’s GP18.
Dovizioso had two ’18-spec bikes in his garage on the first day of testing at the Chang International Circuit but the long-awaited updated chassis was not fitted on either machine. Instead, the Italian sampled revamped aerodynamic fairings in the afternoon. The new frame, he said, would have to wait until Saturday.
By the time he began testing those fairly radical aerodynamics, Dovizioso had gone close to matching early pace setter Marquez’s time, shadowing the Spaniard in a similar way to much of last year.
In the days preceding the test, it had been speculated the twelve corners and substantial straights of the Thai track would be perfectly suited to Ducati’s engine – never shy of horsepower – and supreme acceleration and braking capabilities.
So it proved, with Dovizioso’s fourth fastest time just over a tenth of a second off Cal Crutchlow’s quickest lap of the day and 0.033s back of Marquez. Two tracks into 2018 and last season’s revelation can feel confident of his victory potential at both – and that’s before the updated chassis was rolled out.
“Yes, it looks good for our bike,” said Dovizioso on Friday evening. “Unfortunately I couldn't follow the other bikes, so I don't know a lot about that, but I think it's quite good for our bike, quite good for my riding style.
“The lap times from today are not so important. It was clear that me and Marc, we understood easier and faster the track, but this is not too important, because we have three days, everybody has time to understand the track and make an improvement.
“We already have our 2018 bike. In Malaysia we had just one, and we already have two. About the fairing, still we are working on that, because it's a very strange work, to work with the winglets and the fairing.
“It's not like when you try a set up, from your style, you can prefer something one way or in another way. The fairing is something very difficult to take a decision on, and in one track, one fairing can be better, and in another track, another one can be better.
“So it's very difficult, and tomorrow we will work on the details about that. Today we spent one-and-a-half hours, but we have to work with more time to make more laps in every spec to have more feedback, because it's very difficult to work with the fairing."
Dovizioso’s first assessments of Ducati’s GP18 at Sepang in late January included positive feedback on the machine’s precision when entering the corner. Asked whether he felt similarly here, he explained the majority of the track’s twelve bends are deceptively tricky.
“Well, the entry of the corner is very strange,” Dovizioso said. “It's not so easy to ride in this track. It looks easy, but it's strange. I think this is the reason why some riders took a lot of time today to be fast.
“Some braking parts are quite hard at the beginning, but the last part of braking, we are not able to keep a lot of pressure on the front brake. So it's an unusual track, but it is what it is.”
On the track itself, which he only sampled for the first time on Friday morning, Dovizioso added, “You have to be very precise in the last part of the track, because you have to make the line with the throttle and with the slide.
“And it's not so easy, so sometimes you are able to make a good line, but most of the time, not. So yes, it is like this, but for overtaking, think there are three or four corners where it is quite easy to overtake, it looks like.”