Ducati Sporting Club UK > News Items > Ducati Press Releases > The Ducati Lenovo Team riders fifth and sixth at the end in Sachsenring’s Practice, with Bagnaia ahead of Bastianini

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MotoGP | Round 9 - German GP 2024 | Friday 5 July 2024

The Ducati Lenovo Team riders fifth and sixth at the end in Sachsenring’s Practice, with Bagnaia ahead of Bastianini

The opening day of action at the Sachsenring saw both riders of Ducati Lenovo Team earning the direct seed to tomorrow’s qualifying two. Francesco Bagnaia finished the afternoon session in fifth position, followed by Enea Bastianini, sixth at the chequered flag.

After the ninth place secured in Free Practice, Bagnaia was in the lead until the red flag situation triggered by the crash occurred to Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Racing Team). Once the on-track action resumed, Pecco gradually lost positions before bouncing back to fifth place during the penultimate run of what was an extremely competitive session (with the top-15 riders in just under a second). Bagnaia’s current gap from second place is only 0.123secs, with the reigning world champion who performed very well on the longer distance.

Bastianini finished Practice only 24 thousandths of a second in arrears of his teammate as he set his personal best for the day during his penultimate quick lap attempt and with a soft rear tyre. Enea showed a promising pace in the rest of the afternoon session with medium front and rear tyres. He also had a crash at turn 11, from which he escaped uninjured. In Free Practice, the Ducati rider #23 was seventh quickest.

The German Grand Prix action will resume tomorrow at 10:10 local time (GMT +2) for Free Practice 2, which will be followed by Qualifying 2 at 11:15 and by the ninth Sprint Race of the season, which will get underway at 15:00.

Francesco Bagnaia (#1 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 5th
“Today, compared to Assen, we had to do a lot of work and we’re still not fully satisfied about the feeling with the bike. We were quickest today race-pace wise, but we missed something when it came to the time attack. We couldn’t make the most of the fresh tyre as I was losing a lot in terms of traction. We need to understand how to fix this but we already have some clear ideas on which direction to take. This is why we’re not worried.”

Enea Bastianini (#23 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 6th
“All in all it was a quite positive day, despite the afternoon crash. I’m especially happy because I managed to improve lap after lap, and I had a good feeling also this afternoon. We tried something new which in some areas of the track worked well, whilst in others didn’t. We need therefore to do a good job tomorrow in putting everything together the best way. The pace is very, very good, we’re only missing something on the single-lap performance.”