Red Bull Ring, MotoGP, J3, Andrea Dovizioso Conference: The game with Márquez, more power but less brakes, etc. (Entirety)

The conference held after the Austrian MotoGP Grand Prix on the Red Bull Ring circuit welcomed Andrea Dovizioso, Marc Márquez et Fabio Quartararo.

As usual, we report here the raw words of Andrea Dovizioso, without the slightest journalistic interpretation.

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What a race! Congratulations ! Andrea, you had a little smile yesterday because you probably knew what was going to happen. But in the end, everything came down to the last lap when few people expected your maneuver in the last corner...

Andrea Dovizioso : “yes, me neither! I hadn't really prepared for this last corner but it's not really a corner that suits my style and my bike to go into it. But a lot happened during the race and I'm very happy for many reasons. I think it's the best or one of my best victories because we didn't have the same speed as Marc before the race. So we needed a strategy to try to stay with him. The temperatures had changed since the day before and we used a different choice of tires. Maybe that had an effect, but during the race I put everything together: we started with different settings that I hadn't used because it was unfortunately wet during the warmup. He lost the front on the exit but I responded at turn 4 again and that was very important. Afterwards, when Marc overtook me, he tried to attack and create a gap but his rear tire deteriorated too much. At the end, I was lucky to be able to fight until the last corner because he didn't have the same grip as me on the right side. He was better braking but thanks to that grip I was able to stay with him and make that last crazy turn. I hadn't prepared for it but I passed the front corner perfectly and was a little inside. I said to myself ” OK, si je tire trop long, je serais 2e sans problème”. Mais j’ai ralenti la moto de la bonne manière ».
" I am very happy ! I'm very happy for Ducati because we needed this. We needed this victory in this way and it gives us energy for the future.”

Did you know before the race that it was going to happen like this?

" No. I was a little worried about it and during the race I didn't have that good feeling to wait. I was there but we were attacking. Not every turn, but we were attacking. During braking, we tried to preserve the tires a little but we were at the limit. And here, when you're behind a driver, it's a little harder. If you attack at 100%, it's a little harder. So we had to be very careful when braking because if you brake a little too late, it's easy to make a mistake. But we had worked well during testing, which gave us the opportunity to be consistent until the end. Because I wasn't faster than Marc, but in the end I had more grip, which allowed me to stay with him. So I’m very happy with this victory for many reasons.”

Can you tell us a little more about what happened in turn 3 of the first lap?

“Well, at turn 3 the same thing happened as last year. I tried to do this in a different way but Marc was in a position that allowed him to control me. When you are on the outside in this corner, because it goes back and is slightly uphill, you have to wait for the driver on the inside and you lose a lot of time and positions. It happened again. It wasn't good but luckily I was able to stop Marc at the next corner.”

Marc said you played with him sometimes. Was it true?

“I was playing, but not with the speed, because if I had had enough to finish alone, I would have finished the race alone. I played on the straight twice because if you overtake a driver and find yourself in front, especially with Marc, he is able to brake later to be on the inside and control the braking. If I overtake a driver and stay there (on the inside), I can control the braking, and that's what happened twice. I had better grip on the right and that's why I was able to be faster in the last corner. I didn't have this advantage at the start of the race. I was almost like him when accelerating. The difference was that its degradation was bad and I was able to accelerate better. I wanted to stay next to him. Anyway, I pulled long twice because if I brake at the same time as Marc, I go a little further.”

This race was much faster than last year and even faster compared to the first year. For what ?

“The tires are a little different compared to last year, so that's normal. There's a little more grip. With the tires we have this year, six seconds seems normal to me. Compared to the first year, the bikes have changed a lot, so I think that’s normal.”

During the first race here, with Andrea Iannone, you made the decision to choose the medium rear tire and him to tighten it. At a press conference, you said that you lost because of that. Is this why you chose soft this year?

“No, because the tires are completely different from that year. Every year, every race, the soft, medium and hard tires are different.”

Your Ducati behaves very well here. Will this also be the case at Silverstone or is it just the track?

“It’s just the route. It's rather easy to understand. There's a lot of acceleration when you need to be relieved, and there aren't a lot of long turns so that's normal. We accelerate very well, we brake quite well, not like Marc but very, very close, and that's why we can be very competitive here: we have more power in 5th and 6th.”

It was much cooler today. How has this affected the performance of your motorcycle and tires?

" I don't know. After the race, I can say that the soft worked better than the medium, but it wasn't like that during testing. So maybe, just maybe, the conditions had that effect that way, or, as you know, racing is sometimes different from testing.”

Do you think the championship is still open?

“It’s open because it’s still open and there’s a lot of racing left. On the one hand, this race does not change the future because Marc has shown his potential in many races and he is more competitive than last year. So I expect him to be strong at every circuit, and I think it will be very, very difficult. But we are working to develop the bike. We won the race but we are working very hard to try to improve the bike. We are constantly working towards this, so you never know what you may find and material will arrive in the future. I want to continue thinking like that because it's normal: I have to stay like that. But in reality, fighting with Marc right now is very difficult. But that doesn't change our approach: we have to progress because it's not enough to beat him. I think this victory gives us a lot of energy for the future. We suffered a lot in some races, and to win like this, without having better speed but working hard for the race and winning this one, I think it's very positive for me and for Ducati.

Austrian Grand Prix MotoGP standings:

Classification and cover photo credit: MotoGP.com