Today produced another sensational victory for Andrea Dovizioso who powered to the top of the podium again at Silverstone a fortnight after his win in Austria. This was the fourth win of the season for the Italian rider, who now heads the championship table for the second time this season with 183 points.
At the start Dovizioso got away well from the second row and finished the opening lap in sixth place. The Italian moved into third on lap 6, battling with a group made up of Rossi, Viñales, Marquez and Crutchlow, and he then overtook the two Spanish riders to move into second behind Rossi. Three laps from the end Andrea passed his rival from Tavullia and then held off a hard-charging Viñales until the chequered flag.
The next round of the MotoGP World Championship will be at the Misano Adriatico circuit on the weekend of 8-10 September with the San Marino and Riviera di Rimini Grand Prix.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1st
“I’m so happy about today’s victory, my fourth this year, because every race we win is different from the others, and this means that we are really strong and can fight for the championship. It was a really tough race because all of our rivals were on top form. Today Marquez was unlucky, but we did a perfect race because, even though we were probably not the quickest outright, we were able to interpret it in the best possible way and go on to win. This means that the work we did during the weekend was excellent, and so was my race strategy because I managed to get into the right position at the right time. This year every race is a story in itself and the tyres are always a key factor, but we are very focused on our working method which is producing results.”
Month: August 2017
British GP|Q2
The Ducati Team rider will start tomorrow’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone from the second row of the grid after today’s Q2 qualifying session, sixth with a best lap of 2’00.572.
In the morning the FP3 session was held on a damp track surface following overnight rain. The factory Ducati man, who only went out on track at the half-way through when surface conditions had improved, was unable to improve on the time he had set during Friday afternoon’s FP2, but in any case this was good enough to put him through into Q2.
After finishing second in FP4 in the afternoon, Dovizioso then took part in the second qualifying session for the British GP, round 12 of the championship, which will be held over a distance of 20 laps, starting at 16.30 CET tomorrow.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 2’00.572 (6th)
“Today was rather complicated because unfortunately this morning it rained, and we lost almost all the FP3 session, without getting through the scheduled workload. At the end of FP4 we were able to improve enough, but I’m still not entirely happy and I hope that tomorrow in the warm-up we can make another step forward. We have a good pace but there are a lot of very fast riders out there, so we’ll see what it’s like in the race. However I’m satisfied with the time I set in qualifying, because starting from the first two rows was our aim and we achieved that.”
British GP|FP1-2
The Italian Ducati Team rider finished the first day of free practice for the British GP at the Silverstone circuit inside the provisional top ten.
Ninth position went to Andrea Dovizioso, with a lap time of 2’01.893, after the Italian used today’s two sessions above all to try out the three rear tyre compounds made available by Michelin for the British round.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 2’01.893 (9th)
“Today we focussed mainly on the tyres, trying out all three rear compounds we had available: we didn’t work very much on the set-up and so we are not quite right in that area. I’m not very worried about my times today because, even though there are a lot of riders with a good pace, I think that we still have a few cards to play tomorrow, seeing as the weather conditions appear to be stable and so we’ll have time to improve our speed.”
British GP|Preview
After the two races in the Czech Republic and Austria, MotoGP moves across the Channel for the third event in August, this time on the fast and challenging Silverstone circuit. Following a splendid win at Spielberg, Andrea Dovizioso now finds himself in the UK for the twelfth round of the 2017 championship.
Dovizioso has been on the podium three times at Silverstone, thanks to two second places in 2010 and 2011 and a third place in 2015, but last year the Italian rider had to settle for sixth overall due to increasing stiffness in his right forearm, which prevented him from pushing hard.
The Ducati Team rider completed a day’s testing at Misano Adriatico on Tuesday in preparation for the San Marino and Riviera di Rimini GP, scheduled for mid-September at the Riviera circuit. He notched up a lot of laps (102) on a hot sunny day, and set some positive times on his Desmosedici GP machine.
The Silverstone weekend gets underway on Friday morning with the first free practice session at 9.55 am (UK time, 10.55 CET), while the 20-lap race is scheduled for Sunday afternoon at 3.30 pm (16.30 CET).
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 2nd (158 points)
“After the win in Austria I’m really happy to get back on track at Silverstone. The British circuit is beautiful, but for sure the weekend will be very challenging due to the always changeable weather conditions, and also because the track is full of bumps that make everything more difficult. The test at Misano was very important because we were able to do some work that will be useful both for Silverstone and for the San Marino GP in a couple of weeks’ time.”
Austrian GP|race
Andrea Dovizioso powered to a spectacular and truly memorable win in the Austrian GP, held today at the Red Bull Ring circuit near Spielberg. The Ducati Team’s Italian rider, who started from the front row of the grid after going second quickest in qualifying, rode a masterful race to always stay in the leading group, and he took over at the front on lap 18. Andrea was then passed by Marquez but was back in the lead again on lap 22 and he held on to that position until the chequered flag, despite a last-ditch attempt by the Spanish rider in the final corner.
Thanks to the 25 points’ haul for today’s win, his third of the season, Dovizioso has moved into second place in the overall championship standings, reducing the gap from leader Marquez to 16 points.
MotoGP will return to the track again in a couple of weeks’ time at the Silverstone circuit in the UK on the weekend of August 25-27.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1st
“It was a crazy race, but to be honest the whole weekend was incredible, and in particular the final curve of the last lap, but I managed to remain clear headed and was aware that Marquez was going to try and pass me. It was a very difficult situation because if Marc had closed the door coming out of the corner, he would have forced me out and passed me. Instead I was able to resist his attack and I went on to win! I’m very satisfied with the way we managed the entire weekend with my team: understanding the right choice of tyres was really difficult but we did it. We had a great race, we’re making up points in the championship, and we’ve got all the right cards to fight for the title.”
Austrian GP|Q2
The Ducati Team rider will start tomorrow’s Austrian Grand Prix, round 11 of the 2017 MotoGP World Championship, from the front row of the grid after today’s qualifying session. The 28-lap race at the Red Bull Ring circuit near Zeltweg, will get underway at 14.00 CET.
At the end of this afternoon’s Q2 session, Andrea Dovizioso was second quickest with a time of 1’23.379. This morning the Italian rider was in the top ten of the combined standings after FP3 and as a result went directly through into Q2. Dovizioso was unable to improve on his time of 1’24.046 from FP2 yesterday, but in any case he finished sixth in the aggregate standings for the three free practice sessions.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’23.379 (2nd)
“Today was quite a strange day because the temperature was different from yesterday and things didn’t exactly go the way we had expected, but in the end we were able to interpret the situation and do a good qualifying session. We used a different strategy to the other riders, fitting a medium rear tyre which worked well and I’m very happy about the job me and the team did together. We still don’t have a clear idea about the choice of tyres for the race because today they behaved differently from yesterday and tomorrow the temperature should be a bit warmer so it won’t be easy to make the right decision, but qualifying today confirmed that we are competitive enough to be able to fight at the front tomorrow.”
Austrian GP|FP1-2
The Ducati Team rider got off to a good start on the first day of practice for the Austrian Grand Prix, which takes place this weekend at the Red Bull Ring near Zeltweg.
At the end of the day it was Andrea Dovizioso who headed the provisional timesheets with an unbeaten lap of 1’24.046.
The Italian rider set his quickest time towards the end of the second FP2 free practice session, when the sun came out once again over the Austrian circuit, but even in FP1 in the morning he classified inside the top ten, in second position.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’24.046 (1st)
“I’m very pleased with the way things went today and we couldn’t have had a better start to the weekend. The Ducati Corse engineers have done a really good job with the new fairing, which on this track is working very well, and we have managed to get close to the effect of last year’s winglets, confirming our speed in two different conditions, both this morning and this afternoon, when there wasn’t much grip. But now we have to work on some details because it’s the tyre wear that will make all the difference in the race rather than sheer speed, just like last year.”
Austrian GP|Preview
Just a few days after the Czech Grand Prix, the 2017 MotoGP World Championship continues non-stop with the second of three appointments in the month of August, this time in the heart of Austria, at the Red Bull Ring circuit close to Zeltweg in Styria. This eleventh round of the season will be held on the spectacular Austrian track, the venue for last year’s triumphant 1-2 win by the Ducati Team with Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso in first and second place.
Two days ago Andrea Dovizioso took part in the official MotoGP test at Brno, evaluating several new technical solutions including the innovative aerodynamic fairing used at the Czech circuit only by the Spanish rider, which will probably be used by him as well.
The Austrian GP schedule gets underway on Friday morning with the first free practice session at 9.55 am, while the 28-lap race will start at 14.00 CET on Sunday.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 3rd (133 points)
“If we consider our result from last year, in Austria we are for sure amongst the favourites but this year the situation is different because without the winglets it won’t be easy to find the same speed. Despite the fact that the result in Brno was not what we expected, in general I’m pleased with our performance over the weekend in the Czech Republic, even though in the end unfortunately we lost a lot of points in the championship standings. On Monday in the official test we tried the new fairing and the feeling was good, so I’m confident about this race and I believe we can be competitive right from the start of the weekend.”
MotoGP official test Brno
After taking part in yesterday’s Czech Grand Prix, Andrea Dovizioso was out on track again at the Brno circuit for a one-day test that also saw the presence of all the factory MotoGP teams and several satellite squads. The Italian rider took advantage of perfect weather conditions to do important set-up work and back-to-back tests on several new components, and also used the new aerodynamic package, raced yesterday by his team-mate, for the first time.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’56.403 (11th), 45 laps
“Today was a perfect day to do all the tests that we had planned. We had all the time that was necessary to evaluate the bike with the new fairing, and we managed to test it to the full and obtain some clear feedback. The guys in Ducati Corse have done a really great job, because it was not easy to recreate the effects of the winglets with the new regulations, but as always there are pros and cons in riding and feel. In my opinion it will be useful at certain tracks and I think that it could give us a good advantage in Austria.”
Czech Rep. GP|race
Andrea Dovizioso took his Ducati Desmosedici GP machine to a sixth place finish in the Czech Grand Prix, which was held today at the Brno circuit. The race, which was declared ‘wet’ by Race Direction, started on a damp track surface but this soon dried out, and the outcome was decided above all by the different strategies chosen by the riders and the teams for the change-over of the bikes.
Andrea Dovizioso powered away well from the second row and crossed the line at the end of the opening lap in third place. The Italian then came back into the pits to change his bike on lap 6 and he returned to the race in fifteenth place, managing to recover to sixth overall after passing Petrucci two laps from the end.
In the overall standings Dovizioso remains in third place, twenty-one points behind leader Marquez.
The Ducati Team riders will stay behind tomorrow to take part in a one-day official test at the Brno circuit and then the MotoGP circus will head to the Red Bull Ring at Zeltweg for next Sunday’s Austrian GP.
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 6th
“Unfortunately it was a complicated race and we were unable to decide the right strategy. For sure I should have come in before and changed to medium slicks like my rivals did. When I returned to the track and realized that I was in sixteenth place it was a bit tough, but I gritted my teeth and pushed hard until the end to bring home at least a sixth place. Even the ten points we scored today could be useful for the championship but to be honest, after the way the weekend had gone up until this morning, we could have got a lot more from this race.”