Dovizioso: “I was in the right position at the right moment”

Italian takes his FOURTH win of the year in a tactical masterclass at Silverstone

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) took win number four at the British GP, taking back the Championship lead from Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) and now nine points clear at the top. Staying in contention throughout and then perfectly choosing his moment to strike, ‘DesmoDovi’ pushed to the maximum on the final lap, just able to stay out the clutches of Maverick Viñales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) – by a tenth.

Andrea Dovizioso, P1: “I’m a bit surprised because for the race I had a good feeling, but not to be able to win. I expected Honda to be very competitive but it didn’t happen. During the race we have to ride in a different way to practice and that changed it. I was able to save the tyre, with Maverick and Marc, and that helped me arrive at the end with better grip. I was also able to improve my speed in some corners because I was able to see how they did those corners. I wasn’t faster, but I was in the right position at the right moment and that was the key. What happened today is something special for us. We’re leading, but we’ve showed to everyone we have a chance to fight for the Championship. It’s long and the competitors are very strong – riders and bikes – so it’s open, but we’ve won four races in a different way and we work very well during the weekend. When we’re not fastest we’ve kept working, we go to a race and try to do the maximum. I was able to fight for a victory I didn’t expect. The bike has positives and negatives but I was able to play with it and make the most of the positives.

"Every race can change everything – look at Marc. Six races is a lot of points and we have to think race by race. I wasn’t thinking about the Championship, I was comfortable in the race and when you’re comfortable you can play. When I saw Marquez on the pitboard it didn’t change my strategy, because I was comfortable. It was a fun race. For me it was difficult to understand what was happening through the race with the others, I saw Marc out on one lap but I didn’t know there were four riders. I saw Valentino drop a bit and thought I had to take the opportunity, and then pushed to the maximum on the last lap.”

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