Dovizioso gets second pole of 2016

Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso claimed his second pole position of the MotoGP season, in a damp Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying session at Sepang.

While third practice yesterday morning was dry, rain fell shortly afterwards and the track surface was still wet for qualifying.

Covering the unlikely prospect of the resurfaced circuit drying, Ducati for Dovizioso and Yamaha for Valentino Rossi had second bikes readied with intermediate tyres when Q2 started.

However they weren’t needed, with Dovizioso leading the way on wets for all of the 15 minutes.

The Italian’s first flying lap was a 2m11.511s, 1.624 seconds faster than his closest challenger at the time, Rossi.

Rossi, his Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo and world champion Marc Marquez all reduced that gap, with Lorenzo within 0.276s of Dovizioso when the chequered flag was shown.

Dovizioso changed from a soft wet rear tyre to a hard midway through the session and went faster again on his final lap.

Another rider to improve after the flag, Rossi pipped Lorenzo by 0.056s to grab second, while third for the Spaniard still represents a return to form in wet conditions.