Andrea Dovizioso claimed his first 2021 World Championship points in only his second race with PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team at the Circuit of The Americas.
After an opening lap on which Andrea Dovizioso slipped backward to 17th, the Italian mounted something of a comeback around the demanding COTA track. By lap nine he had fought his way back up to 12th position before being passed for the place, and he then delivered a consistent ride to hold 13th until the finish. Today he started his 329th Grand Prix across all classes, which moves him into the second highest number of starts, behind only his team-mate.
There will now be a two-week gap before PETRONAS Yamaha SRT make their second visit of the season to Misano, this time for the Gran Premio dell’Emilia Romagna (22-24 October).
Andrea Dovizioso #04
P 13“I’m very disappointed with the start because I almost switched off the engine – I don’t know if I made a mistake but I lost a lot of positions, so we’re looking into that. This made it not very easy, especially as it’s very difficult for us to overtake, but in the end my pace was quite good and quite consistent. I’m disappointed because I didn’t achieve the maximum – with a good start I believe I could have been in the top ten, but the improvement since Misano is huge and we’re continuing to work hard and to adapt to the bike. We are in a strange situation that I can be happy even when we don’t get a good result because I’m learning, so it’s ok and we will continue to work in this way”.