Andrea Dovizioso finished the French GP at the Le Mans Bugatti circuit in fourth place today. The Ducati Team’s Italian rider, who started from row 2 after notching up the sixth-fastest time in Saturday qualifying, fought for sixth place with Pedrosa and then Crutchlow and with two laps remaining, he passed the British rider to cross the line in fourth place, 11 seconds away from winner Viñales after Rossi crashed out on the final lap.
Jorge Lorenzo, who started from the sixth row in sixteenth place, was thirteenth by the end of the opening lap and he then made a good recovery which took him to seventh by lap 18. The Spanish rider then gained one more place on the final lap to finish sixth.
The overall riders’ standings after five rounds see Dovizioso in sixth with 54 points and Lorenzo in eighth with 38.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 4th
“In the end today’s fourth place was a good result, and maybe I could even have tried to fight for the podium with Pedrosa, but I can’t be fully satisfied. We probably took home the best result possible because towards the mid-race point I had to slow my pace: as I was pushing hard in several points of the track I was losing strength in my right forearm and I wasn’t able to keep up the same intensity for the whole race. In the final stages my pace was quite good and I managed to lap quite easily in the low 1’33s and stay ahead of Crutchlow until the flag.”
Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team #99) – 6th
“Considering my position on the grid and the result of the warm-up, we have to say that it was quite a positive race for us. It’s true that the gap to the winner was pretty big and in some parts of the circuit I was losing a lot, but in general my pace was quite consistent and I didn’t make any errors. In the end we scored a good sixth place, my best result this year after the podium at Jerez, but we must continue to work hard. On Tuesday we’ll be out on track again at Montmeló for a couple of days to try and improve the bike more.”
