Crutchlow powers to excellent second place in Phillip Island qualifying

Andrea Dovizioso down on row 4 in tenth place

Cal Crutchlow had a really good qualifying session today at Phillip Island, the British rider powering to a second place grid slot behind world champion Marquez. The Ducati Team man will start the Australian GP from the front row – for the first time this season – alongside the Spanish rider and fellow countryman Lorenzo.

Andrea Dovizioso had a tougher time today in qualifying, and despite being just 68/100ths of a second away from Marquez, the Italian having to settle for tenth place and a row 4 grid start. Today the Ducati Team rider was again unable to find a perfect feeling with his Desmosedici GP14.2 on the Australian track.

The qualifying session was an extremely hard-fought affair, with the top 11 on the grid separated by just 75/100ths of a second.

Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team #35) – 2nd (1’28.642): “I’m really pleased with the lap time we achieved in the end and second position is great for Ducati: I think we deserved that. It was a decision made at the start of qualifying to go out and push immediately with the ‘rain-ish’ conditions, and I set a good time. Then I changed tyres and went out again and set my best time!

Tomorrow I’m sure it’s going to be a long and tough race. Phillip Island is a challenging circuit because the conditions can change every lap. I believe that tomorrow’s race start at 4 pm will make things more difficult because of the cooler temperatures. Hopefully we can use the asymmetric tyre in the front and the same as the other guys in the rear.”

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 10th (1’29.088): “Today we were simply not able to make much improvement with the feeling of the GP14.2, but in qualifying we set some good lap times so that’s quite positive. Tomorrow’s race will for sure be difficult, but we have to believe in our abilities: here at Phillip Island over 27 laps the tyres drop off a lot, and anything can happen.”