The European season begins for the Mission Winnow Ducati team

For several years now, the Spanish race in Jerez de la Frontera has inaugurated the central stretch of the championship and is always one of the most highly participated by the public. The paddock comes to life with large trucks parked in front of the pits and sparkling hospitality tents teeming with people.

Dovizioso arrives in Andalusia as the world leader. After his victory in Qatar, Andrea limited the damage in Argentina and the United States, collecting precious points that kept him at the top of the standings. The US racing track proved once again a tough cookie for the Desmosedici GP, while the very rough, bumpy asphalt limited the performance of our Ducati riders.

The return to Europe saw Danilo Petrucci to the top 5 in the ranking. Danilo is getting the job done, riding his bike across the finish line and avoiding any mistakes. Jerez may already be the right race to hit his first podium as an official Ducati rider. 

The Spanish asphalt has a unique characteristic that makes it extremely smooth, and this always creates great difficulties for riders. The general lack of grip causes a rather accentuated level of degradation of the tyres, and therefore their level of performance plunges rapidly during the race. The race simulation carried out during the qualification runs and, consequently, the choice of the right tyres was one of the key factors for consistent performance at Jerez.  

In addition to tyre wear, the Andalusian circuit puts pressure on other aspects: from the chassis, due to the long series of hard corners, to the brakes, with two decelerations at turns 1 and 6 that engage the brake systems for more than 200 m.