The Ducati Team took it back to the track today at Sachsenring for the German Grand Prix. After a semi-wet warm-up session due to scattered rain showers overnight and early in the morning, the race was held in completely dry conditions with temperatures around 20 degrees in the atmosphere and 30 on the tarmac. Starting from 12th and 13th position respectively after a difficult qualifying session, Danilo Petrucci and Andrea Dovizioso made a strong comeback to finish in fourth and fifth position respectively.
Thanks to a strong start, Petrucci and Dovizioso took sixth and seventh position during the second lap within a group of seven riders separated by only 1.5 seconds, then climbed to fourth and fifth respectively by the half-way point. Engaging in a spectacular and clean battle in the final laps, Petrucci and Dovizioso passed the finish line just 92 thousandths of a second apart.
After nine rounds, Dovizioso holds second position in the Riders standings with 127 points while Petrucci, third with 121 points, increases the gap from fourth. Ducati is second among Manufacturers with 157 points, while the Ducati Team leads the Team rankings with 248 points.
Danilo Petrucci (#9 Ducati Team) – 4th
“Today we did our best, making a strong comeback to finish fourth and take home important points for the championship. It’s been a complicated weekend, but fortunately yesterday’s crash didn’t particularly compromise our performance during the race. I was able to get off to a strong start from twelfth place on the grid and I immediately recovered some positions, then I simply tried to manage the rear tyre in the best way possible. It wasn’t easy to hold off the other riders of the pack, and once again I had a fun battle with Andrea and Jack. The only negative note is the gap from the winner, but I think we achieved the best possible result today. Now we’ll take a small break, during which we’ll work hard to be even more competitive by the time we’re back in action and make up ground in the championship.”
Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 5th
“Today we had another exciting battle with Danilo for almost the entire race and claimed fifth position in a sprint to the finish line to bring home important points in one of the most difficult tracks for us, which is undoubtedly positive. However, we couldn’t have done more during the race and the gap shows how we still need to improve under some aspects to be able to fight at the front in each situation. We’re still second in the championship despite the bad luck we had in Barcelona and the issues we encountered in the last couple of races. For sure we won’t give up and we’ll try to put this short break to good use and find some new solutions to be more competitive, starting from next round at Brno.”
The Ducati Team will be back in action at Brno (Czech Republic) for the tenth round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship, scheduled for August 2-4.
