Andrea Dovizioso feels the final grid for Sunday’s MotoGP outing at Jerez does not tell the full story after he salva♔ged a third row start after a dismal morning s𒐪howing.

For the second time in 2018, the Italian was forced to navigate a way through the muddy waters of Q1 thanks to a lacklustre showཧing in FP3. It w🎃as then Dovizioso and his crew changed strategy and started anew.

The improvements were immediate. FP4 showed the 32-year old to have a p♊ace worthy of a top six place in tomorrow’s race, with the fitting of Ducati’s aerodyna𝓰mic fairing a big positive.

From a position of peril, it appears the 2017 runner up can rack up yet more solid points at a track that is far from his favourite. Eighth place on th♐e grid is not ideal, he said, but the🐭 feeling – and his confidence - had crucially returned.

“I’m happy because we improve a lot the situation from this morning and it was the last chance,” said Dovizioso. “I’m happy how we have worked this weekend. We started with one idea but we underst🦋ood, especially after this morning, it ♐wasn’t right.

“We kept calm and took the right decision. If you start to go in a bad way, it’s difficult to change in the weekend🦄 and come back strong and make a good race. I think we’re in that situation.

“Unfortunately we start on the third row; this is the only negative point. I did a mistake on my fast🉐est lap in turn six and it didn’t give me the possibility to make the first row. In Jerez it’s very important to start on the first or second row, but al💯so last year I started on the fifth row and I finished fifth."

“Still there is the chance to gꦦet in the right position from the start. Let’s see because it’s not so easy to understand🙈 the pace of the competitors. For sure there are others with a good pace, but always the race is different.

“I think we will find different conditions. It will be hotter and windy, especially in Je💜rez it changes a lot. We have to be ready in that♐ relation.”

Like Austin, Dovizioso fitted the radical fairing late into the weekend, a move which ultimately bore fruit. Asked whether ﷽it had a similar impact to what passed two weeks before,🤪 the Italian said, “There it was a different story: the track was bumpy, windy, with no grip - there was a different reason.

“But here the effect was good. Before we came here you always speak about whether to put the fairing or not at the beginning of the weekend but we deci🐻ded to not put the fairing after the test here in November. There I was really ♈fast about the pace and the best lap. But at the end when we studied the data in the details we saw a different condition than the test. The grip is a little bit less than the test. I couldn’t today or yesterday ride aggressively, like the test.

“We studied all the data from the other Ducati riders and the other riders had the fa🍰iring. It was quite clear the way. But it’s always very difficult to make that decision after free practice three because you have one practice and you have to pass thr🅰ough Q1. But we did it the right way and I’m really happy about that.

“We improved the braking and the first part of the entry because here, in Jerez, there is a lot of fast corners where you have to enter without touching the front 𓄧brake. The fa🅘iring helps in that point, always.”