While the other Ducati of Jorge Lorenzo took the win in MotoGP’s Austrian GP, Andrea Dovizioso faltered and could only manage third as his tyre choice turned out to be a wrong one.
The Italian opted for medium tyres as opposed to the soft on Lorenzo and hard for Honda’s Marc Marquez. He stayed on the tail of the fighting Lorenzo and Marquez but had to give up in the last 10 laps when his tyres started to lose the grip.
Dovizioso’s race was already compromised slightly at the start when he had to take an evasive action from Marquez. It put him two places down but he quickly recovered to third and slot behind teammate Lorenzo.
For the larger part of the race he tried to overtake Lorenzo but failed. The moment when both the Ducatis came closer to Marquez to make the move in Turn 1, Dovizioso went wide which eventually sealed his race.
He admitted that his choice of medium wasn’t the correct one in the end, but added that he can only learn from the mistakes and improve further. “I couldn’t put myself in the right position from the beginning,” he started.
“Marc started with a very good lap time, we could stay there with the same pace but in the end maybe the tyre choice wasn’t the best but also I couldn’t overtake Jorge. I used maybe too much the rear tyre to try to overtake Jorge and I couldn’t overtake him.
“I was faster in that part of the race but I couldn’t really prepare in the best way, the overtaking. That cost me for sure because I had to slow down too early. Ten laps till the end, I did a small mistake but already I was in trouble with the right side on the rear tyre.
“[I am] very disappointed because there was a chance to bring more points to the championship but at the end end when you take decisions with just the two practice in dry, it can happen.
“We just didn’t take the right decision – sometimes we are good, sometimes we are not perfect and when you don’t make the perfect decision, it is good because you can learn in the next round which is something we did from last year and it worked.
“The championship became interesting [though], Valentino is closer and closer. For sure, it will be a battle from me and Jorge in the end, so let’s see.” The Italian was pipped by Lorenzo as he sits fourth with 129 points after 11 races.
He is 72 behind Marquez but only 13 adrift of Rossi which will make an interesting fight for second after both the Ducati riders managed to clear Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales and Tech 3 Yamaha’s Johann Zarco in the last few races.
