As usual, we report here the raw words of Andrea Dovizioso, without the slightest journalistic interpretation.
Andrea, Paolo Ciabatti told us on the grid that you had a plan. Did you follow him to do this extraordinary race?
Andrea Dovizioso : “Hmm… I didn’t really know what the others could do. I expected Rins to start strong, even if he crashed twice yesterday and maybe lost a little feeling. He is very good in racing and I saw it during the test: his speed in the middle of the corner is incredible. I think his bike is the complete opposite of mine. I accelerate very hard and I can be very fast on the straight, but I struggle a lot in the middle of the corners. I always wanted to slow him down because it was too early to attack. Nobody could attack over the distance of the race with the rear tire. So I think he left too soon. So I was able to brake him and continue to save the tire, and it was a perfect strategy to be able to fight with Marc in the last laps. I made a mistake when braking with the shift, and Marc overtook me but that gave me the opportunity to understand his situation as well as an extra boost because his situation was worse than mine. He was better at braking but my speed was a little better, so I immediately decided to try to overtake him as soon as possible and attack, without giving him a chance. Well, in the end, he was able to overtake me (laughs) with his “Marc Style” which is very good for trying to overtake, even if he doesn't have the same speed. But I was able to respond in the right way because my acceleration was very good.
I'm very happy because, before the weekend, the feeling was very bad. "I didn't have the feeling and we didn't have the pace when braking, but if you stay calm and work the right way with the team, this can happen."
The last turn was a carbon copy of last year…
“We can look at this in 2 ways. It's good to see, it's good to win like that against a champion, but only Marc is capable of doing that. In this situation, no one would try. In this kind of situation, he wants to try while all the other drivers would stay behind me and finish 2nd. So it's positive to finish like that, but unfortunately he has an advantage: he can do that, and sometimes it works, and others it doesn't.
Did you deliberately make the run slow?
“I think MotoGP is now very different from the past. If you look, Valentino finishes at 6/10 and he is 5th. I don't think anyone tries to make the race faster because you might get to the end of the race in a really bad situation. So I think the best strategy is to try to be ready at the right time. I think that's what I did. I saved the tire a lot during the race. This is why I braked Rins every time, because to follow him I would have had to wear out my rear tire. "That's why the gaps are so small compared to those of the old riders, but I think the current MotoGP is different."
You used the new aerodynamic appendages already tested by Danilo Petrucci. Did you feel any benefit?
“No, when you ride you don't feel any difference in terms of the feeling on the bike.”
You say that Marc has overtaken you with his “Marc Style”. What does it mean ?
“It's hard to explain, you have to be a pilot to understand. Because when you are behind a driver and you have to take a risk to brake very hard, you block the front, the rear, you have to avoid making a mistake and stay in the corner, it's very difficult! You feel fear. I can't do that! I think Marc has something more on this. He's able to play a little bit more than us in that situation, and he's able to try and then try to manage. So he takes a lot of risks but most of the time he is good at playing with this risk, with this limit. But we know that and we try to respond in the right way.”
It seems that the other teams have protested against your aerodynamics. Have you heard this and can you comment?
" I know nothing ".
This race was a lot like last year. Can you already say something about this season with GP 19?
“It was similar to last year but not really the same. I think it's too early: the circuit in Qatar is very special, so I think we have to wait at least for Le Mans because the next rounds will also be on 2 special circuits. What I can say is that it seems like all our opponents seem closer. This implies that you can lose a lot of points on a bad weekend. That's why we have to keep our feet on the ground and keep working, because we have some really positive points but we have the slowest bike in the middle of the corner. We still have very good acceleration and very good power on the straights, and that gives us the possibility, when the track is good for us and when the tires are good for us, to make a difference. But for 19 races, I think we're still missing something. But I don't know, because it's also difficult to understand the Honda situation: It looks like they have a little advantage compared to last year because they have more power, but we have to see if there is has other changes. Sometimes it can create positive things and negative things. So we have to wait to see that with different conditions.”
When starting, did you use the button on the triple clamp?
" Yes. There is television so I can't say otherwise (laughs). It was clear. I left first, so that was good. And maybe Jack is even better off than me.”
MotoGP, Qatar J3: classification
| 1 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 42'36.902 |
| 2 | 93 | Marc MÁRQUEZ | Honda | +0.023 |
| 3 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | +0.320 |
| 4 | 42 | Alex RINS | Suzuki | +0.457 |
| 5 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | +0.600 |
| 6 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati | +2.320 |
| 7 | 12 | Maverick VIÑALES | Yamaha | +2.481 |
| 8 | 36 | Joan Mir | Suzuki | +5.088 |
| 9 | 30 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | Honda | +7.406 |
| 10 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARÓ | Aprilia | +9.636 |
| 11 | 21 | Frank MORBIDELLI | Yamaha | +9.647 |
| 12 | 44 | Pol ESPARGARÓ | KTM | +12.774 |
| 13 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Honda | +14.307 |
| 14 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Aprilia | +14.349 |
| 15 | 5 | johann zarco | KTM | +15.093 |
| 16 | 20 | Fabio QUARTARARO | Yamaha | +15.905 |
| 17 | 88 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | KTM | +16.377 |
| 18 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | Ducati | +22.972 |
| 19 | 53 | Tito RABAT | Ducati | +23.039 |
| 20 | 55 | Hafiz Syahrin | KTM | +43.242 |
| Not Classified | ||||
| 38 | Bradley SMITH | Aprilia | 2 lapses | |
| 43 | Jack Miller | Ducati | 10 lapses | |
| 63 | Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati | 13 lapses |
Photo credit : MotoGP.com
