MotoGP: Both Ducati Riders Struggle in Their Argentinian Grand Prix Practice

Both Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso turned in not-so-stellar performances during their outing at the Argentinian track – Ducati appears to have much work ahead of it.

Finishing in 14th and 18th place, Ducati’s MotoGP riders Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo struggled to make an impact on the time sheets atop their Italian machines. Whilst one knows what the issues leading to their poor performance was, the other is still in the dark.

The boys in crimson weren’t the only team to struggle with setting impactful lap times, their lack of pace comes at a time whe Ducati needs to do all it can to ensure that its podium placement in Qatar with Dovizioso wasn’t just a flash in the pan. The team is working around the clock to supply its riders with the best possible machines, but – being human – still manages to bork things up once in a while.

Jorge Lorenzo spoke out about his poor form during the practice, claiming that the largest reduction in performance came from an error that led the team to mistakenly fit a soft tire in conditions that did not call form it:

“We made a mistake on planning with the tires. We used the softer one when the conditions were not for the soft. I didn’t know, I thought I had the medium.
I didn’t understand why the front was closing so much, but then after practice I understood that we made a mistake.

And this for sure meant we missed… not the top five, but closer than where we are now.

We are 18th, but we are very close. With the right front tire for sure we would be much better in the classification.” – Jorge Lorenzo

His teammate Andrea Dovizioso struggled with his bike with unknown issues. Dovizioso, understandably upset, briefly touched on the topic:

“We don’t know. Electronics, clutch or something like that, we don’t know. We’re working now to try and understand exactly what happened.

I don’t think it’s something big but, it’s big to manage the bike because the grip is very low here. I couldn’t slide how I wanted, so I couldn’t decide the line and it was very bad.

But the negative point is the position. I am angry about that because tomorrow can be wet and it’s something that doesn’t have to happen.” – Andrea Dovizioso

The weather can go either way in Argentina, but Ducati can’t. They need to keep their heads down and push through the work ahead to ensure that they can come out screaming in the upcoming race. It would be unbelievably sad to see a team crumple just after its first podium – and race – of the season.