Sun shines on the Phillip Island circuit but the temperature is cold and does not manage to warm up the performance of Scott Redding and Danilo Petrucci who finished the first day of free practice for the Michelin® Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix in 16th and 17th position respectively.
After a difficult FP1, Scott Redding seems to find greater feeling in FP2 and reduces the gap with the Top 10 to 4 tenths of a second.
Danilo Petrucci tries to go out in FP1 with the new fairings but the sensations are not positive. In the afternoon Petrux returns on track with the standard set up and manages to be at least faster by registering the Top Speed of the day (339.0 km/h). In the second part of the circuit, however, the feeling is not the best.
17th Danilo Petrucci – 1’30.269
“I had more difficulties than I thought. I don’t have much feeling, especially on the front. This morning we chose to start with wings but the bike was a bit too heavy due to the wind. We tried to change this afternoon but I still do not feel confident. I am sorry about how things have gone today. Tomorrow we must do better”.
16th Scott Redding – 1’30.140
“Today was not so badly even though the position is certainly not what we would have expected. However, I feel that the feeling is positive even though there have been problems for all the satellite Ducati today. I don’t want to change a lot because I feel comfortable with this bike. Surely we must work on the details to be more competitive on time attack”.