As is customary at the ‘Cathedral’, there was some drama at the Geert Timmer chicane - but this year it was Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) and Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) taking the lead roles. Close together on the final lap, the rider from Tavullia made a lunge up the inside - a move he pulled a number of times in the race - but his compatriot swept straight back past on the way to the line to take fourth.
“I was on the inside and it was down to me, this time, on the brakes,” says Dovizioso of the incident. “We both went deep, him more, but that’s how it went.” And on the race in general? The 2017 runner up is also pretty positive: “To fight for the almost-victory, at Assen, for me is something very important. I think I did everything in the right way. I didn’t have the speed in the last 10 laps and I was able to fight for the podium so, this was good.”
But Rossi? For the ‘Doctor’, it wasn’t actually the final chicane that caused frustration at his compatriot – it was some time before. The rider from Tavullia thinks the tactics were wrong.
“With 4 or 5 laps to go, I tried to attack and it was good because I was in second but fighting with Dovizioso. He tried to overtake me at the first corner but he arrived a little bit in the way and, unfortunately, I had to go off the track and we lost out,” says the number 46. “Especially me, but we both lost a lot.
“I think it was an aggressive overtake, like a lot of aggressive overtakes during the race, but strategically it wasn’t strategically very clever because I think that we both had the potential to get on the podium. Because of that, we arrived just 4th and 5th.”
Tune in for the rematch at the Sachsenring on 15th July.