Andrea Dovizioso produced a great race for the Ducati Team in the British GP today at Silverstone to claim the final podium place in third. The Italian rider had a terrific scrap with his compatriot Danilo Petrucci, who finished runner-up in second with the Pramac Racing Team’s Desmosedici GP. His teammate Andrea Iannone found things a bit more difficult in the wet conditions and could only finish eighth.
The twelfth round of the season took place in heavy rain, which began to fall a few minutes before the start, forcing the Race Direction to begin a second starting procedure.
Dovizioso was unable to get good traction off the grid at the start and he finished the opening lap in eleventh place. The man from Forlì then began a splendid recovery through the field and, after passing Smith on lap 4, he latched onto the exhausts of Danilo Petrucci, who was very quick in the wet conditions. The two Ducati riders moved up to third and fourth, and after Marquez crashed out, they began a terrific scrap for the runner-up slot, swapping positions on numerous occasions. On lap 14 of 20 Dovizioso was forced to leave second place to Petrucci and then in the final laps had to keep Lorenzo at bay, so he concluded the British GP with his fifth podium finish of the year.
Thanks to today’s result Dovizioso is now back in fifth position in the overall standings with 120 points, ahead of Smith.
Andrea Iannone did not get off to a good start either and he crossed the line at the end of lap 1 in tenth place. The rider from Abruzzo then tried to impose a regular pace on his race, and after several retirements, he finished the British GP in eighth place. Iannone holds on to fourth overall in the championship standings, cutting the gap to Marquez to just nine points.
Ducati are still third overall in the Constructors’ standings, while the Ducati Team have now moved into second place in the special classification reserved for Teams.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 3rd
“I am really pleased with this third place and I want to say thanks to my team, because we are working so hard to try and get back to being competitive once again. Today was not an easy day for many reasons: we started from the fourth row of the grid and I almost crashed at the start because the rear tyre suddenly lost grip and I found myself at the back of the field. Despite this I succeeded in making a good recovery, even getting up into second place. It was a really tough race, and Petrucci and I had a great battle, so I’m also happy for his excellent result. In the final stages we were taking too many risks when we were passing and repassing each other, and seeing as it was important for us to get back onto the podium, in the end I concentrated on holding onto my third place.”
Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team #29) – 8th
“It was not such a positive weekend from the point of view of the final result, but at least in the standings I was able to get closer to third place. We encountered a bit of difficulty throughout the three days and my bike was not easy to manage due to the bumps on the track, which created a lot of problems for us. In the race I struggled in particular with the rear when turning into the curves and above all at the start I was very slow. Then, as the laps went by, I reduced the amount of engine braking and the situation improved a lot, but I was never able to find the consistency that I would have liked.”
Luigi Dall’Igna (Ducati Corse General Manager)
“In the end we obtained a good result here at Silverstone. Dovizioso finally returned to the podium, Iannone reduced the gap in the standings to Marquez and Petrucci did a really great race. Today we also repeated our best result of the season, with two Ducati riders on the podium, and so for sure we can say that it was a positive weekend. From a technical point of view, I have to say that we had a few too many problems during the qualifying session that I honestly didn’t expect. In dry conditions, we were quite far away from Marquez and Lorenzo, but in my opinion the race pace of our two riders would have allowed us to do quite well even in those conditions. Now we move on to our second ‘home race’ at Misano, which comes after these good results, and where we hope to give some more satisfaction to our fans.”
