This Malaysian Grand Prix will certainly remain a great memory in Andrea Dovizioso's career, as he was able to demonstrate his supremacy and that of the Ducati during this weekend, both in the dry and in the wet. It was absolutely necessary to win and push Marc Marquez as far as possible, which Dovi managed to do masterfully.
At the end of the three free practice sessions, Andrea was in fourth position behind Valentino Rossi, Johann zarco et Dani Pedrosa, just 0.177 behind the leader of the provisional World Championship ranking. And it wasn't the rain that could scare him, on the contrary because he dominated FP2 in the wet with 0.5 ahead of Marquez and 1.0 ahead of his teammate Jorge Lorenzo.
Qualifying went well with Dovizioso setting the third fastest time, allowing him to start from the front row alongside Dani Pedrosa and Johann Zarco. Marc Marquez was pushed back to the third row with the seventh fastest time, but that did not prevent the Honda driver from jumping up to enter the first corner in the lead.
That was CLOSE! 🙈
The Championship was almost over there and then for Dovizioso as he clashes with Marquez!#MalaysianGP pic.twitter.com/ub1uhwlvPq
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) October 29, 2017
Johann Zarco then took the advantage and fought a long battle with Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Marquez until the eighth of twenty laps, then the two official Desmosedici took the lead.
With five laps remaining, Dovi took command and never left it until the finish. He thus kept all his chances of winning the title, even if with 21 points behind Marquez, the Valencia race promises to be complicated. Andrea took his sixth victory of the year at Sepang, the same number as Marc.
Big moves in the championship as Dovizioso moves through to second as his teammate Lorenzo leads the way!
It ain't over yet 😬 #MalaysianGP pic.twitter.com/UtjismsMcG
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) October 29, 2017
According to Andrea Dovizioso, who are " We had a perfect weekend. We can't blame ourselves because we were very fast from the first tests in all weathers. We have always been at the front. »
“I'm very happy for the team because we improved in the dry from one session to the next and had excellent pace for the race. We knew we could fight for victory in the dry. »
“At the same time, we knew we would be very fast in the wet. Grip was incredibly low in the race, worse than in testing. After the warm ups and the Moto3 and Moto2 races, there was a lot of rubber on the asphalt. I didn't have as much confidence in the bike as I did during testing. »
“Luckily, no one put pressure on me from behind, so I was able to find my strong points in peace and improve the negative points. I was able to catch Jorge, he was really fast today, so I had to stay very focused to keep up with him. »
“I didn't expect to be this competitive this weekend, but that's been the case a lot this year. Nobody told us that we could keep the title fight open in the penultimate Grand Prix, so we have to continue to think positively. »
“The most important thing is that we are fast and competitive in Valencia. If it works, we can think of a race strategy, but that doesn't make sense... because we just have to try to win. »
“We know that Valencia is not the best track for Ducati, Marquez is very strong there, but this year many surprises have already happened and you never know what prank the weather is playing. »
“We were relaxed this weekend because we achieved more than expected in 2017, and this attitude will not change in Valencia either, but we still want to get the most out of the competition. »
He knew what he needed to do, so he did.
The championship is going right down to the wire in Valencia!#MotoGP 🙌👏 pic.twitter.com/JeCB3JcrHi
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) October 29, 2017
Race results:
1 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 44'51.497
2 Jorge LORENZO SPA Ducati Team Ducati +0.743
3 Johann ZARCO FRA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha +9.738
4 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda +17.763
5 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda +29.144
6 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA OCTO Pramac Racing Ducati +30.380
7 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha +30.769
8 Jack MILLER AUS EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda +35.238
9 Maverick VIÑALES SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha +38.053
10 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM +39.847
11 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Pull&Bear Aspar Team Ducati +42.559
12 Bradley SMITH GBR Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM +44.602
13 Scott REDDING GBR OCTO Pramac Racing Ducati +48.696
14 Hector BARBERA SPA Reale Avintia Racing Ducati +50.058
15 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR LCR Honda Honda +50.705
16 Michael VAN DER MARK NED Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha +56.397
17 Andrea IANNONE ITA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki +58.391
18 Tito RABAT SPA EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda +1'25.571
“This year anything can happen over the weekend” – @AndreaDovizioso 🎙#MalaysianGP pic.twitter.com/E4iyuWE8dM
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) October 29, 2017
Provisional ranking of the World Championship:
1 MARQUEZ Marc SPA 282 points
2 DOVIZIOSO Andrea ITA 261
3 VIÑALES Maverick SPA 226
4 ROSSI Valentino ITA 197
5 PEDROSA Dani SPA 185
6 ZARCO Johann FRA 154
7 LORENZO Jorge SPA 137
8 PETRUCCI Danilo ITA 121
9 CRUTCHLOW Cal GBR 104
10 FOLGER Jonas GER 84
11 BAUTISTA Alvaro SPA 75
12 MILLER Jack AUS 73
13 REDDING Scott GBR 64
14 ESPARGARO Aleix SPA 62
15 IANNONE Andrea ITA 60
16 ESPARGARO Pol SPA 55
17 RINS Alex SPA 46
18 BAZ Loris FRA 45
19 ABRAHAM Karel CZE 30
20 RABAT Tito SPA 29
Classification by manufacturers:
1 HONDA 332 points
2 DUCATI 303
3 YAMAHA 301
4 SUZUKI 87
5 APRILIA 64
6 KTM 64
Team ranking:
1 REPSOL HONDA TEAM 467 points
2 MOVISTAR YAMAHA MOTOGP 423
3 DUCATI TEAM 398
4 MONSTER YAMAHA TECH 3 238
5 OCTO PRAMAC RACING 185
6 TEAM SUZUKI ECSTAR 107
7 PULL&BEAR ASPAR TEAM 105
8 LCR HONDA 104
9 EG 0,0 MARC VDS 102
10 RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING 79
11 REALE AVINTIA RACING 72
12 APRILIA RACING TEAM GRESINI 67
Photo © Ducati
