Day and a half for 'knocked about' Dovi

Diagnosed with concussion and multiple contusions after Sunday's big accident at the British MotoGP (pictured), Andrea Dovizioso was nonetheless back on track for this week's Misano test.

Despite feeling 'a bit knocked about', the Ducati rider - who remains second in the world championship, but now a distant 78 points from Marc Marquez - missed only the opening morning of track action in Italy.

Adding to the difficulties for last year's home Misano winner was a surprise drop in grip, which forced both set-up and riding style changes, but meant Dovizioso was especially glad to have got an early taste of the conditions.

The Italian was ranked 13th (+0.858s) on day one and then 17th (+1.860s) on day two, but did not push for a fast lap on the extra-soft rear.

“Luckily I managed to do a day and a half of testing and physically I’m OK. In the last few days we did a good job at home: I was able to get back into good shape and here I managed to lap on track, even though I still feel a bit knocked about," Dovizioso said.

"It was very important to test here, because we found a track that was quite different to last year, with not so much grip and you have to ride and set-up the bike in a different way.

"It's difficult to have a good feeling with the bike because when you ride on a small track like this without grip it's really hard. I was fighting with the bike, I didn’t ride in a really good way. I'm not happy about that.

"We tried some set-up and improved some things, and understood some things, but it wasn’t enough to be at the same level as the fastest riders.

"Last year we were dominant in the race but at this test a lot of riders went really fast, so it's not looking so easy [for us] at this moment. But testing is different to the race, at most of the tests I'm near the back and in the races I'm fighting for the podium."

Team-mate Danilo Petrucci did push for a late fast time on the extra-soft rear and was catapulted from 14th to second place, 0.476s behind the flying lap by Petronas Yamaha rookie Fabio Quartararo.

"These were two very important days because in view of the different conditions of the asphalt with less grip, being able to test at the same track we will race on in two weeks’ time allowed us to understand lots of things for the race," Petrucci said.

"We tried many things, not a lot of new components but set-up and some development for the future, to understand the way to follow. At the end we are happy, but for sure we’ll have to improve for the race weekend."

Also on track was Ducati test rider Michele Pirro, who will take part in the Misano race as a wild-card. The Italian set his best time of 1m 33.254s this morning and finished the test in 15th place.

“In these two days we were able to work on several different aspects, both regarding chassis set-up and the new tyres brought by Michelin, especially in view of the race because of the change in grip of the tarmac," he said.

"We have a few different ideas and let’s hope that the temperature won’t be as high in two weeks’ time, because for sure cooler temperatures could give us an advantage.”