The press conference held at the end of the French Grand Prix at Le Mans brought together Marc Márquez, Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci.
As usual, we report here the raw words of Andrea Dovizioso, without the slightest journalistic interpretation.
Andrea Dovizioso : “We must be happy with these 20 points and the situation in the championship. It's really positive, we are here and everything remains open. That's one approach, but on the other hand I'm not very satisfied with this weekend. I suffered a little, the speed was there, not too bad, but not good enough, so my confidence was not 100% starting the race. So finishing 2nd and going home with 20 points is really positive, but on the other hand I think we have to analyze and understand this weekend because we have to find something. Marc is a bit stronger than us at the moment and we need to understand where we can have room for improvement because we need something extra regarding speed in order to be able to manage the tire better. Because today I suffered. In the end, finishing 2nd is good but I struggled with the bike, especially with the rear tire. This is not good if you want to fight for the championship and in the end I was too slow. I couldn't keep the pace of the group we had until halfway, and that's a negative. We must remain calm because we are very close: we are here! Regarding this race and the championship, we have to study and try to understand.”
After Le Mans, you have more points this year than you had in the last 2 seasons when you were the only driver to fight with Marc. And now you arrive at Mugello, a breeding ground for Ducatis…
“Of course it will be very important because it can be a good circuit for us, but I don't think it will be the point that decides the championship. The points result is there, but we have to find something. If we are able to improve a little bit, we will have a fighting chance. But if you're not that lucky, you just have to pray that the other drivers make a mistake, and that's not the way to win a championship. Definitely we will be competitive at Mugello and to arrive there with 3 good results from Ducati here, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, it's really positive. But we have to find something! ".
What would you like to find so that you can fight with Marc in the next races?
“We need speed. When you have speed, you are able to handle a lot of things. When you're 2 tenths slower, everything becomes a problem. So it's always a question of speed. Every rider and every bike has different characteristics, but for me the important thing is speed. In which part of the turn is not important.”
Did your fight with Danilo remind you of Iannone, or Lorenzo at Jerez? Did you expect the team to give certain instructions at this point in the championship?
“If you are in the Formula 1 championship, yes, but in our championship, no, and especially at the start of the season. So the situation is normal. It depends on how you want to look at it: if you want to take the maximum, maybe that would be a good idea, but in our sport it's not like that most of the time. And I think it's good: Danilo is a strong driver and he is in a good situation in the championship. So he has to take the maximum and I'm happy to have this kind of fight. He tried and it was difficult because I was attacking really hard. I struggled with the rear tire but in the end my time was not bad at 32.8. But he didn't do anything crazy because that's not what we need. And I’m happy about it.”
You say you need speed. Are you talking about top speed?
“No, of course, it’s not the top speed, but the stopwatch speed.”
Standings for the 2019 MotoGP French Grand Prix at Le Mans :
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
