Dovizioso ‘not feeling pressure, I feel comfortable’

Andrea Dovizioso has stated he is not feeling added pressure in the wake of his performance during the first day of MotoGP free practice in Qatar, when he posted the fastest times in both sessions.

2017’s runner up only experienced comfort after a seamless first day of the year that saw Dovizioso carry his fine form from each preseason test to the Losail International Circuit.

Dovizioso ‘not feeling pressure, I feel comfortable’

Andrea Dovizioso has stated he is not feeling added pressure in the wake of his performance during the first day of MotoGP free practice in Qatar, when he posted the fastest times in both sessions.

2017’s runner up only experienced comfort after a seamless first day of the year that saw Dovizioso carry his fine form from each preseason test to the Losail International Circuit.

The new season brings about new experiences, even at the age of 31. For the first time since joining MotoGP Dovizioso is widely being spoken of as a championship contender from the off, with rival Marc Marquez earmarking him as the favourite to collect the honours on Sunday evening.

Not that it appeared to affect Dovizioso in any way. “Well, normally the first day in Qatar you always feel a little bit,” he said after a near perfect day. “Not like in the past, it was better today. But you want to start, and you have made a test, so you know more or less everything for the weekend so you don't have a lot of question marks.

“But normally you have some pressure before the first practice. But overall, I feel comfortable. Last year I fought for the championship, I feel more comfortable, I don't feel more pressure. In this situation I feel the same.”

On the day’s two sessions, Dovizioso continued, “We did three days of testing before the weekend, so we are starting in the same way. So I'm happy to confirm this, I'm happy to confirm this with a different temperature because it's hotter.

“I feel good. The bike worked well in this track for sure. The lap time came easy. This is very important and helped us to work in the details for the race because the race is different, and you have to be ready in every detail.

“It looks like there are a lot of riders with good speed. It's very difficult really who has the pace to the end, but at the moment it looks very tight for the qualification.”

Dovizioso also revealed he opted for the newest of the two 2018 chassis he was testing back-to-back in the tests in Thailand and Qatar.

“We arrived here with the new chassis, but not really for something clearly better,” he said. “I have a good feeling with both fortunately. We have to make a decision, and it's better to go into the weekend with one spec, and we decided on that one, but not for an important reason.”

On Friday evening, several riders complained of the revised schedule, which sees MotoGP bikes on track in the mid-afternoon for FP1 when track temperatures are in the 40s before the later session in the evening. By then the sun has gone down and conditions had changed substantially.

“Unfortunately it's impossible to find a perfect schedule, because how many hours we have at night is not enough to make two practices,” said Dovizioso when quizzed on the matter. “Too many times it happened that the humidity came too fast.

“So we decided not to take any risks and to race at seven o'clock. I think it can be too much, eight o'clock is enough. But in any case, if you race at night, it's difficult to have two practices at night.

“It's impossible to have a perfect schedule. Like this I think is quite bad, because to ride with 47°C it's really not important. Fortunately we did three days of test, so it's not like a normal weekend, where you have to start from zero. But it's not the best.”

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