Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso left himself a mountain to climb after qualifying on the fourth row of the grid on Saturday, but yet again Desmo Dovi ascended and conquered the issues he was facing to recover thirteen points from the Motul TT Assen to just about stay in touch with Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez.
The gap between first and second in the MotoGP™ World Championship now stands at 44 points but Dovi is less fussed by the points gap but instead the gap out on track between himself and the reigning World Champion.
Today, the Italian was 14 seconds adrift of eventual race winner Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) and ten behind Marquez, which he admits is frustrating: “Yes, the gap is big in the Championship and that’s not the best but I’m a bit more disappointed about the gap more than the points.
“Because when you can stay very close to the fastest riders, anything can happen. With the attitude or during the weekend you can change a lot of things, you can affect a lot of things. When the gap is big it’s a different story so that is the point. They say it was the best bike, doesn’t mean that’s the reality.”
Putting his disappointment to one side, he still says he got the most he possibly could have from the TT Circuit Assen, after seeing off teammate Danilo Petrucci and Petronas Yamaha SRT’s Franco Morbidelli in a last lap scrap to clinch fourth place.
“We have to be happy about the result because we took the maximum, and this is the first thing a rider must do. So, fourth was the maximum we could do today but for sure, the gap is too big.
“It just confirms our negative parts: we struggle on the change of direction, we couldn’t keep the same speed in the middle of the corner, we have to use the tyre so the tyre drops, which is normal. The consequence of this is the 14 second gap, which is too much, so we can’t be happy about that but it’s the reality.”