To Andrea Dovizioso , until this Sunday afternoon in Malaysia, everything was going well at Sepang. In the race, we were going to see what we were going to see, the GP18 was better than the GP17 and the Italian was ready to face any conditions with his red bike. And we saw. A wet firecracker on a dry track, a more modest performance than at Phillip Island a week ago, a track which is nevertheless the enemy of the Desmosedici, unlike Malaysia! An almost collective sinking since behind DesmoDovi in sixth place we find three other machines from Borgo Panigale. Dovizioso falls from a height and tries to understand.
In the Italian box, there is perhaps a Majorcan who hides a secret satisfaction at seeing a Dovizioso like helpless. The two men were in fact coming out of a jousting by interposed declarations. If Dovi judged the situation of Lorenzo strange about the management of his physical state, he now had to concentrate his attention on this strange performance which gave, in passing, the keys to the championnat manufacturers to rival Honda.
At the finish, the one who will still be vice-world champion for the second consecutive year, thanks to the fall of Red, commented: “ it's normally a good track for us but if you remember correctly, we've never had a good race in the dry. Everyone forgets that we won twice in the wet ».
Certainly, but during winter tests, Lorenzo had set a record time on the dry Sepang track. However, it is true that Danilo Petrucci had finished sixth as the best Ducati rider in the last dry race at Sepang in 2015. But Dovi corrects: “ It's true in testing and in winter testing our speed was really good, so we don't really know what happened in that race. I think there is a technical reason ».
He analyses : " the difference with the tests was too great. I don't want to say clearly what happened because something was wrong for me or maybe not, I don't know, it's too early to know, so we have to study the data. I had to drive in a completely different way. Sure, the conditions were a bit warmer than Friday and Saturday, but the difference was too big ».
« We have to analyze, study and understand if there was something wrong or if this was our limit on this track in these conditions. In the race I couldn't brake because the front wasn't working properly and it was affecting all parts of the track with my riding style. So we have lost too much ».
He finishes : " since Brno we are always fighting for victory or the podium. We did not expect that. But the conditions here are special because the race was completely different from the tests ". It will be recalled that the race started at 13:00 p.m. local time, with an air temperature of 34°C and a ground temperature of 53°C, the hottest of the entire meeting. Dovizioso finished in sixth place ahead of Alvaro Bautista (GP17), Jack Miller (GP17) and Danilo Petrucci (GP18). He was equipped with the same tire combination as the drivers at the front.
Malaysian Grand Prix, Sepang, MotoGP J.3: classification.
| 1 | 93 | Marc Márquez | Honda | 40'32.372 |
| 2 | 42 | Alex Rins | Suzuki | +1.898 |
| 3 | 5 | johann zarco | Yamaha | +2.474 |
| 4 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | Yamaha | +4.667 |
| 5 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Honda | +6.190 |
| 6 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | +11.248 |
| 7 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Ducati | +15.611 |
| 8 | 43 | Jack Miller | Ducati | +19.009 |
| 9 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati | +22.921 |
| 10 | 55 | Hafiz Syahrin | Yamaha | +26.919 |
| 11 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | +29.503 |
| 12 | 21 | Frank MORBIDELLI | Honda | +30.933 |
| 13 | 6 | Stefan BRADL | Honda | +35.322 |
| 14 | 30 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | Honda | +37.912 |
| 15 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | KTM | +39.675 |
| 16 | 12 | Thomas LUTHI | Honda | +41.820 |
| 17 | 10 | Xavier SIMEON | Ducati | +43.978 |
| 18 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | +58.288 |
| 19 | 45 | Scott REDDING | Aprilia | + 1'00.191 |
| Not Classified | ||||
| 44 | Pol Espargaró | KTM | 4 lapses | |
| 51 | Michael PIRRO | Ducati | 15 lapses | |
| 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | Ducati | 17 lapses | |
| Not Finished 1st Lap | ||||
| 29 | Andrea Iannone | Suzuki | 0 laps |
