The two Ducati Team riders had to retire from today’s Spanish Grand Prix, held today at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, after a crash on lap 18.
Jorge Lorenzo, who got off to a great start, moved to the front at the first corner and kept the position until lap 7, when he was passed by Marquez. The Spanish rider held on to second place until lap 17, but he was hit by Pedrosa at Turn 6 on the following lap and in turn hit the bike of his team-mate, accidently causing both the other riders to crash out and retire.
Andrea Dovizioso made a great recovery in the early laps after starting from row 3, and he moved into third position on lap 9. The Italian rider then latched on to Lorenzo and tried to pass him at the start of lap 18, but he went wide at Turn 6 and was involved in the incident between his team-mate and Pedrosa which put all three men out of the race.
The next round is the French GP, scheduled for Le Mans from 18-20 May.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – DNF
“What a pity! On the one hand I’m happy with the feeling that I had with the bike, my speed and how I managed the race: to start from behind and make up places here at Jerez, lapping almost at the same pace as Marquez who then won the race, is truly a great satisfaction. But in the end I go home with no points, and this is a very negative result at this moment, because we are fighting against a very strong rider and bike and as a result we can’t afford to lose 20 points when it was a foregone conclusion. About the incident, I braked right on the limit because I had been trying to pass Jorge for a few laps: I went wide and made Jorge go wide a bit as well, Dani saw an opening and jumped in too quickly and in the end bad luck would have it that when they came together they also took me down with them.”
Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team #99) – DNF
“I’m really disappointed about the crash, especially because it involved three of the fairest riders in the world championship, and for this reason I don’t want to go into detail about what happened. We were for sure very unlucky and it was a racing incident: Pedrosa went in very hard but I don’t think we can blame anyone except for bad luck and I’m really sorry for Andrea and for Ducati. Satisfaction remains for the great race we were doing, for my explosive start and for our determination, but I’m also happy with the way we worked the entire weekend. This race was a step ahead in our development and, even though we are still two or three tenths of a second off the pace, we are on the right path.”
