After an excellent Qatar Grand Prix which he finished in second position, Andrea Dovizioso had the misfortune of crashing in Argentina when he was unintentionally hit by Aleix Espargaro, but the rest of the start of the season then went much better for him with sixth place in Texas then fifth in Jerez.
It is a shame for him that his teammate's performance Jorge Lorenzo, superb third, put his own a little under the media extinguisher because his fight with Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi, which he ended up beating, was a thing of beauty.
The start of the weekend was very difficult, with only the sixteenth performance at the end of free practice, which forced him to go through Q1. He only finished fourth, behind Andrea Iannone, Aleix Espargaro and Danilo Petrucci, which condemned him to start from fourteenth place on the grid, on the fifth row next to the KTM of Espargaro Pol. The warm up did not go any better with the eleventh time.
In the race, Dovi moved to eleventh after the first lap, then he overtook quite quickly Jack Miller and Jonas Folger. He then overtook Andrea Iannone, and found himself in the heart of a great fight with Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi, who came to join Danilo Petrucci. He managed to win against these beautiful people and finished fifth, two seconds ahead of Vinales and Petrucci.
In the provisional standings of the World Championship, Andrea Dovizioso is currently the best placed Ducati rider, occupying fifth position with 41 points, between Dani Pedrosa (52) et Johann zarco (35)
For Andrea, “A good result after a not particularly easy weekend, given that I started from afar on the grid, which made things more complicated.
“However, we were really good, and I managed to gain a lot of positions and race calmly to get a good result at the checkered flag. We worked well all weekend and yesterday I showed that I had good pace, but starting from behind didn't help and I have to try to be more incisive during practice and in qualifying. .
“I have to congratulate Jorge because he raced very well all weekend and achieved a great result for himself and for Ducati. »
Ranking
1. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 45m 26.827s
2. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 45m 32.963s
3. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Ducati Team (Desmosedici GP17) 45m 41.594s
4. Johann Zarco FRA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1)* 45m 44.428s
5. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici GP17) 45m 49.740s
6. Maverick Vinales ESP Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 45m 51.383s
7. Danilo Petrucci ITA Octo Pramac Racing (Desmosedici GP17) 45m 51.786s
8. Jonas Folger GER Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1)* 45m 54.548s
9. Aleix Espargaro ESP Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) 45m 58.060s
10. Valentino Rossi ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 46m 5.509s
11. Scott Redding GBR Octo Pramac Racing (Desmosedici GP16) 46m 7.806s
12. Hector Barbera ESP Reale Avintia Racing (Desmosedici GP16) 46m 10.026s
13. Loris Baz FRA Reale Avintia Racing (Desmosedici GP15) 46m 10.038s
14. Bradley Smith GBR Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (RC16) 46m 14.791s
15. Karel Abraham CZE Pull&Bear Aspar Team (Desmosedici GP15) 46m 18.106s
16. Sam Lowes GBR Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP)* 46m 35.712s
17. Takuya Tsuda JPN Team Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) 46m 54.277s
