Spanish Grand Prix, Jerez, MotoGP, J3: Andrea Dovizioso, fourth, loses the lead of the Championship

Although he only managed to qualify on the second row, Dovi took the start of the Spanish Grand Prix with confidence, having made a good start to the season including a victory at Losail, a third place at Termas de Rio Hondo and a fourth in Austin. He thus arrived in Andalusia at the top of the World Championship, while his main opponent Marc Márquez only occupied fourth position in the provisional general classification.

Andrea, however, remained cautious about his hopes of a result in Jerez, having never been on the podium since racing in the MotoGP category, and knowing full well that Ducati had won only one Grand Prix in all at the Ángel Nieto Circuit.

During free practice, Dovizioso set the fourth fastest time, while the best performance went to his teammate Danilo Petrucci, which could only be a source of comfort and confidence. Qualifying took place in good conditions and the Italian obtained the fourth time with a time of 1'37.018, 0.138 behind the man on pole. fabio quartararo. Dovi then explained: “ I am happy because we have worked very well so far and we have improved in each session. My feeling with the bike is good, and even during qualifying, which is usually not my strongest point, I managed to record a competitive time although my lap was not perfect ". His position on the grid suited him: “ It is extremely important to start from the first two lines. Even though I didn't have a perfect lap, we worked well all weekend, I'm happy. I expected to be fast in Jerez. Now I'm even faster than expected ". During the press conference, when asked who he feared for tomorrow, Marc Márquez replied: “ Dovi will be there. He has a lot of experience and is able to adapt to all situations ».

During the warmup, he was content with tenth position, but only 0.665 behind the leader Marc Márquez, which could give hope, if not a victory, at least a good place at the finish.

The 200th MotoGP Grand Prix in Dovi

At the start, Andrea quickly found himself in fifth position, behind Marc Marquez, Franco Morbidelli, Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Viñales. He was overtaken by Álex Rins, but passed the Spaniard again on the straight.

Rins took fifth place ahead of Dovi 18 laps from the checkered flag, just ahead of the other official Ducati of Danilo Petrucci. At mid-race, Andrea was back in fifth place, behind Marquez, Rins, Viñales and Morbidelli. He overtook Morbidelli with 9 laps remaining to move into fourth place, just behind Maverick Viñales.

Under the checkered flag, Dovi finished the Spanish Grand Prix in fourth position behind Márquez, Rins and Viñales, but ahead of his teammate Petrucci.

According to Andrea, “ If we consider the problems we have always had at Jerez in the past, we can be happy with both our pace and the gap at the end of the race. That said, it was a shame not to be able to get on the podium, which was our goal.”

“The race was faster than we expected and I lost too much ground at the start. During the final stages, I took a few risks to reduce the gap with Viñales, but I was still losing too much ground in the fastest corners to be able to attack him under braking.”

“We knew that on fast tracks like this we would have a little more difficulty. We need to improve our cornering speed. We have already done this to some extent and we are not far behind our rivals. We will therefore continue tomorrow in this direction”.

« We wanted to get on the podium, too bad we didn't do it. It was a particularly fast race, I lost positions at the start, Morbidelli's attack made me lose time. I took a lot of risks to try to get on the podium, I pushed hard... It didn't go bad! Now we are fast and good in Jerez”.

“I expected a little more, but in the corners we lost too much, that's our negative point. We are strong in acceleration. When braking we are like the others, but in the corners we struggle. We need to improve, we've known that for a while, we're closer, but it's still not enough.”

“We knew it would be difficult, we worked well in practice, but in the race you have the real test. We have improved, we are strong, but in races where we run so intensely, we put in more effort than usual.”

“Rins is better this year, Yamaha is up and down, Marc seems to be in better shape… We seem more distant than last year, but that may not be the truth. We need to analyze this race and understand what others have done. We are very well placed in the championship, I am convinced that we will be able to do something more from the next GP. Finally, congratulations to my teammate (5th): Petrucci had a great race and from the next GP at Le Mans, he will surely do even better.”

Grand Prix ranking:

Provisional ranking of the World Championship:

 

Team ranking:

 

Photos © Ducati / motogp.com / Dorna