MotoGP news

Dovitzioso pleased to lead Friday

Andrea Dovizioso was happy to lead the way in practice at Le Mans on Friday as the session, now extended back to one hour in length, was broken up half way through as a result of rain. The Italian finished atop the timesheets from Casey Stoner by just under six hundredths of a second having completed a total of sixteen laps at the French circuit.

"I'm happy today because we have started in the right way here at Le Mans," said the 23 year-old, whose best results so far this season came in the shape of fifth places in Qatar and Japan. "I like this track and I was able to be fast right from the beginning of the session. Unfortunately, it started raining in the middle of the practice so we didn't do many laps; this meant we couldn't test so many options on the machine but anyway, we were able to get some useful information and learn that we need to improve the setup for corner entry."

Although any margin would be enough to achieve pole position in qualifying on Saturday, times were closely matched between the leading Repsol Honda and Ducati. "The lap times overall were not very fast today and I think they will come down by around two seconds," Dovizioso explained, "so today's lap time is not indicative for the weekend. Regarding the race, I've had many podium finishes here so my expectations are high, but it's too early to speculate about results. We just need to keep on working hard - and keep an eye on the weather…"

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