Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) produced an inch-perfect performance to take Ducati’s third consecutive victory of the season at the GP Octo di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini, the first time the Bologna factory have achieved that since 2008, but did the Italian have it all under control?
“Especially after Warm Up I was feeling good, I knew my speed was as a minimum the same as the competitor but with this tyre, sometimes it’s not enough when you’re in that situation. You have to create the situation and I was so focused to do that, I knew Jorge would want to start leading and push but he didn’t push so hard, he seemed to have the tyre so I tried to save the tyre and play with the riders behind me, and see how confident I was to push,” explained ‘DesmoDovi’, a sure indication that his tactics were to control the race from the front once in the lead of the race.
And that’s exactly what the Italian did, but in the latter stages a late surge from teammate Jorge Lorenzo threatened to disrupt Dovizioso’s victory charge – but the number 04 responded:
“In that moment I was just keeping a good lap time, a 33.4, but at that moment Jorge started to push very hard and maybe it was under 33,” deciphered the 10-time Grand Prix race winner. “But to do that lap time you have to take a lot of risk, I didn’t want to risk, but at four laps to go I understood that I had to push because when Jorge does something like he normally comes very strong. I think in the same lap he crashed he did a 32.8 and I knew that when I did that lap time it was enough to manage the situation.”
This was the Ducati rider’s third win of the season and his most convincing victory of the three this year, but what does Dovizioso think about the next round in Aragon as he aims to make it four? “There is a possibility, I think it will be hard, Marc is very strong there and for sure he’ll want to win there. But in the test we were fast, so I think we can really fight for the victory there. Let’s see the conditions, the conditions there and the small details affect the weekend a lot.”