Today produced another sensational victory for Andrea Dovizioso who powered to the top of the podium again at Silverstone a fortnight after his win in Austria. This was the fourth win of the season for the Italian rider, who now heads the championship table for the second time this season with 183 points.
At the start Dovizioso got away well from the second row and finished the opening lap in sixth place. The Italian moved into third on lap 6, battling with a group made up of Rossi, Viñales, Marquez and Crutchlow, and he then overtook the two Spanish riders to move into second behind Rossi. Three laps from the end Andrea passed his rival from Tavullia and then held off a hard-charging Viñales until the chequered flag.
Team-mate Jorge Lorenzo also ran a very good race, the Spaniard finishing fifth at the flag just 3.5” behind Dovizioso. Jorge scrapped first with Pedrosa and then with Zarco, building up a small gap over his two rivals, which he maintained to the finish. Thanks to today’s result, Lorenzo holds on to seventh place in the championship table with 90 points.
The next round of the MotoGP World Championship will be at the Misano Adriatico circuit on the weekend of 8-10 September with the San Marino and Riviera di Rimini Grand Prix.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1st
“I’m so happy about today’s victory, my fourth this year, because every race we win is different from the others, and this means that we are really strong and can fight for the championship. It was a really tough race because all of our rivals were on top form. Today Marquez was unlucky, but we did a perfect race because, even though we were probably not the quickest outright, we were able to interpret it in the best possible way and go on to win. This means that the work we did during the weekend was excellent, and so was my race strategy because I managed to get into the right position at the right time. This year every race is a story in itself and the tyres are always a key factor, but we are very focused on our working method which is producing results.”
Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team #99) – 5th
“This time I opted for a more conservative start than usual and maybe it slowed my progress in the early laps. For sure after rather a difficult weekend, in which we never exactly found the right rhythm, we have to be happy because in the race I managed to manage the throttle well and preserve the tyres. In this way the rear tyre stayed consistent throughout. It wasn’t sufficient to catch the leading group but it was enough to keep the gap down and score my best result of the season in this sense. And I think that at Misano we can do even better. I want to congratulate Andrea, who rode a masterful race, and showed that he was perfect in managing this type of race. His results speak for themselves: four wins and lthe championship lead can only make the entire team happy.”
Luigi Dall’Igna (Ducati Corse General Manager)
“I want to send my congratulations to all the men and women of Ducati Corse for this fourth win of the season because, if I think of how hard they have been working over the last few years, I’m really happy that now they can finally see the results of their work. Andrea did another marvellous race, in which he never made one single mistake, and also Jorge scored a good result on a difficult track like this one, finishing just over three seconds behind the winner, so I have to say that I am really optimistic for the future.”
