The Ducati rider had, against all expectations, a good weekend on the German circuit, but unfortunately not enough to get back into the title race. He thus enters the summer break with more than three victories behind Marc Márquez in the Championship.
Nobody expected the Ducatis on the Sachsenring, and yet (almost) all of them were competitive. Andrea Dovizioso he himself was rather surprised at the end of the first day that he finished in fourth position. Even though he had to go through Q1 early Saturday afternoon, he managed to qualify for Q2 and then qualify fifth.
However, he was quite skeptical about his ability to win the race, expecting the best and the worst with rising temperatures and tire wear. In the end, the Italian driver experienced something in between. First installed in fifth position and on the pace during the first part of the race, he then dropped back to finally finish in seventh position: “The race was difficult, but at least this time we were with the leading group on a circuit where, in the past, we had never obtained good results. We had a good pace at the start of the race, and until halfway through I was riding in the same times as the leaders, but then the rear tire deteriorated and I was not able to ride consistently and to turn the motorcycle well in the turns. So I couldn't maintain the same pace until the end. It's a shame but we're going to take stock of this experience in order to have a better idea of the direction to take. »
Although this remains a better result than last year when he finished eighth, he finished fourth Ducati rider behind Danilo Petrucci, Álvaro Bautista and Jorge Lorenzo. In addition, this takes him a little further away from the title against a dominant Marc Márquez who has a string of victories and who now totals seventy-seven points ahead of him, or more than three victories.
German Grand Prix Sachsenring MotoGP J.3: Standings
1 93 Marc MARQUEZ Honda 41'05.019
2 46 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha +2.196
3 25 Maverick VIÑALES Yamaha +2.776
4 9 Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati +3.376
5 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA Ducati +5.183
6 99 Jorge LORENZO Ducati +5.780
7 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati +7.941
8 26 Dani PEDROSA Honda +12.711
9 5 Johann ZARCO Yamaha +14.428
10 38 Bradley SMITH KTM +21.474
11 55 Hafizh SYAHRIN Yamaha +25.809
12 29 Andrea IANNONE Suzuki +25.963
13 53 Tito RABAT Ducati +29.040
14 43 Jack MILLER Ducati +29.325
15 45 Scott REDDING Aprilia +34.123
16 6 Stefan BRADL Honda +38.207
17 12 Thomas LUTHI Honda +49.369
18 17 Karel ABRAHAM Ducati +1'01.022
19 10 Xavier SIMEON Ducati +1'16.692
Not Classified
35 Cal CRUTCHLOW Honda 21 Laps
30 Takaaki NAKAGAMI Honda 26 Laps
Not Finished 1st Lap
42 Alex RINS Suzuki 0 Laps
44 Pol ESPARGARO KTM 0 Lap