When the package Jorge Lorenzo poorly recovered from his wrist injury contracted in Thailand was recorded, Ducati seemed to find himself very deprived. For Australia which followed a week later, soldier Pirro could not be mobilized and thrown to the other side of the world. Its mission was already defined in Europe, for tests deemed important with a view to 2019. So the reds chose Baptist after the Pramac team made it clear that it would not let go of any of its drivers. A default choice... Who didn't default!
Certainly, there were three falls in two days before this sparkling Sunday ended with a convincing fourth place. And very useful for the manufacturer for his own championnat. Better, Baptist never let go Dovizioso, third in front of him, but at the end, because during the race, he also found himself behind... A performance that even Lorenzo congratulated on his social network…
Great ride and result from @ 19Bautista too!! never easy to be as fast as Dovi even less if you don't know the bike and after 2 big crashes 👏
- Jorge Lorenzo (@ lorenzo99) October 28, 2018
That being said, there are questions to ask. How did the Angel Nieto Team driver manage to adapt so quickly to the GP18 which was unknown to him? To the point of actually threatening his expert DesmoDovi. As for Petrucci, we will forget it out of modesty…
The answer is simple and it is given by Dovi: “ I'm not really surprised by Bautista. I have known Alvaro for many years. He has the driving style needed to position himself as one of the best drivers in the field.” A deal that no one wanted to take advantage of when the transfer market was open. Starting with the future Petronas Yamaha structure which preferred Fabio Quartararo...
Corn (Mais) Dovizioso keep on going : " with a good bike and a good tuning base, he just had to ride well on a good track for him. Its style from the 250 is perfect on tracks which demand a lot from the rear tire because of the long turns. And the result is there ! »
The Italian finishes: “ so I'm not too surprised, I'm happy for him but also for the team who took important points ". Because this good overall result coincided with Honda's blank result. For the following, we will recall that Baptist will be a Ducati official in Superbike in 2019. And for Malaysia next weekend? Lorenzo is hoped, Pirro has his tickets, but Baptist hope...
Australian Grand Prix, Phillip Island, MotoGP, J.3: classification.
| 1 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | Yamaha | 40'51.081 |
| 2 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Suzuki | + 1.543 |
| 3 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | + 1.832 |
| 4 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Ducati | + 4.072 |
| 5 | 42 | Alex Rins | Suzuki | + 5.017 |
| 6 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | + 5.132 |
| 7 | 43 | Jack Miller | Ducati | + 6.756 |
| 8 | 21 | Frank MORBIDELLI | Honda | + 21.805 |
| 9 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | + 22.904 |
| 10 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | KTM | + 22.940 |
| 11 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | Ducati | + 34.386 |
| 12 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati | + 35.025 |
| 13 | 45 | Scott REDDING | Aprilia | + 36.348 |
| 14 | 30 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | Honda | + 36.389 |
| 15 | 10 | Xavier SIMEON | Ducati | + 44.214 |
| 16 | 12 | Thomas LUTHI | Honda | + 48.226 |
| 17 | 81 | Jordi TORRES | Ducati | + 1'04.965 |
| 18 | 7 | Mike JONES | Ducati | + 1'19.817 |
| Not Classified | ||||
| 44 | Pol Espargaró | KTM | 5 lapses | |
| 55 | Hafiz Syahrin | Yamaha | 9 lapses | |
| 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Honda | 16 lapses | |
| 93 | Marc Márquez | Honda | 22 lapses | |
| 5 | johann zarco | Yamaha | 22 lapses |
