MotoGP: Dovizioso Goes Two in a Row

June 12, 2017

Andrea Dovizioso took his second win in a row one week after Mugello, this time in the Catalan GP at Montmelò in Spain. The Italian is now just seven points away from the lead of the championship behind Yamaha’s Maverick Viñales.

Just one week after winning the Italian GP at Mugello, the Ducati Team rider powered to victory, his fourth time in the premier class, in front of almost 100,000 spectators at the Montmelò circuit outside Barcelona.

Starting off well from row 3, Dovizioso crossed the line at the end of the opening lap in third, and he moved up to second on lap 8 after passing his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo and then Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez. Andrea hounded Pedrosa until lap 17, when he attacked his Spanish rival to take the lead, which he maintained until the chequered flag and finishing with a gap of more than three and a half seconds over reigning MotoGP champ Marquez.

“I’m so happy but also a bit surprised by this win! Dovizioso exclaimed post-race.
I had a great feeling before the start because I knew that we could be very competitive, not because we were the fastest out there on the track, but because yesterday we worked well to prepare for the race. It was a strategic race more than anything else and we were good at interpreting the limits of the track and the tyres. The track was very difficult and all the riders had problems with grip, which dropped off a lot and so we concentrated on administering tyre consumption and on consistency, and this decision paid off. In the race I was able to be very fast without pushing hard when I found myself behind Pedrosa and this helped me a lot in the last ten laps, when I passed him and then pulled out a small gap over the two Hondas. I can truly say that today we were on really great form!”

Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa scored the Repsol Honda Team’s third double-podium finish the season by finishing in second and third position, respectively, in the scorching-hot conditions in Catalunya. It was a positive result for the team and saw both riders move up in the Championship standings to third and fourth, just 23 and 27 points off the top.

For the current leader of the championship, Movistar Yamaha’s Maverick Viñales, it was a tough weekend plagued by grip problems and has seen his championship lead cut to just seven points after a 10^th place finish.

“We expected today’s race to be particularly challenging for us, as we encountered some difficulties in all practice sessions, he said. “We knew that under such circumstances like today – hot weather and low-grip asphalt – our bike is not as competitive as we’ve seen it in other races. Eighth and tenth is not exactly what we were aiming for, but they’re valuable points for the championship and now we put this race in our archive and focus on the next races. It’s good that we are staying in Montmeló for tomorrow’s test, so we’ll be in the position to get immediate feedback about the new materials our engineers have developed. They’ve brought two new frames with the aim to improve the performance of the bike in situations like today’s and we will be back soon on the highest step of the podium.”