Analysis – 2017 MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix – Dovizioso (1st): The decline in tire performance was the key to our success – Used DUCATI

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2017 MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix – Dovizioso (1st): The decline in tire performance was the key to our success

Analysis - 2017 MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix - Dovizioso (1st): The decline in tire performance was the key to our success - Used DUCATI

Thanks to his second victory in a row signed at Barcelona a week after Mugello, Andrea Dovizioso is repositioning himself as a very serious challenger for the MotoGP 2017 world title against a Maverick Viñales who passed the Catalan GP ! A fine strategist, “DesmoDovi” wins after having optimally preserved his tires ahead of Marquez and Pedrosa. Statements and analyzes.

Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team (7th in qualifying and 1st in race): “We realized that the grip was bad and the tire wear was very fast. In fact, we couldn’t just focus on our speed. At the start, no one was able to set the pace because we all had to save. our tires to the max. I passed a few riders and found myself in Dani’s wake. He was handling the wear on his tires quite well, which I also managed to do while maintaining the front. was unaware of what was going on behind us, because the pace was relatively slow. Ten laps from the finish I decided to push and realized that my tires were quite damaged. But it was was also the case for the others. It’s weird, because I won without being 100%! "

Analyzes - 2017 MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix - Dovizioso (1st): The decline in tire performance was the key to our success - Used DUCATI

“No one can predict the future, especially this year. Every weekend is different. I’m not focused on the championship, but more on the development of the bike. We handled the situation in the best possible way, our strategy was perfect. I didn’t expect to be competitive here yet I won … I know the good and bad about this bike and I want to get the best out of it in every race. But I’m also realistic : I don’t think we can fight for the championship, we still lack a little something ".

  • MNC of June 11, 2017:  
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MNC analysis : Andrea Dovizioso had never reached such a level of success since joining Ducati in 2013: the native of Forlimpopoli (Italy) won his second successive victory in Catalonia after his success, giving the Bologna brand its first double since that by Casey Stoner in then in 2010. To avoid spoiling anything, these two dominations are carried out in the dry and in front of all the top names, without any circumstance minimizing their importance !

For "Dovi", the satisfaction is all the greater since he had never won two races in a row in MotoGP, nor moreover than in the lower categories. Even in when he had won his and won five times (his best performance to date), the Italian had failed to double the bet. !

Analyzes - 2017 MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix - Dovizioso (1st): The decline in tire performance was the key to our success - Used DUCATI

Admittedly, the recent tests conducted in Barcelona by Ducati have helped Dovizioso to get around the track faster. His supersonic top speed in the long straight line at Montmelo (1047m) also facilitated his success, as at Mugello last week. But with 340.3 km / h against 336.8 km / h for Rabat and 335.6 km / h for Rossi (respectively the fastest Honda and Yamaha riders in the race), the advantage of Andrea Dovizioso was not not so consistent. Not enough in any case to offer him the victory on a golden bridge.

Its success, the n ° 4 clearly built it by cutting down the best cards at its disposal: first by choosing the right tires (hard at the front and medium at the rear), then by preserving them as much as possible. to avoid their deterioration on the aging and overheated bitumen (55 ° C during the race!) of Montmelo. A "simple" strategy on paper, but far from obvious to apply nose in the bubble for 25 turns !

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Like most of his rivals, Dovi understood from testing that the nature of the circuit would pose serious grip problems: "the track was very difficult, very bumpy, with a surface that offered zero grip", explains the n ° 4 who was among the drivers in favor of the Catalan route.

"So not easy to manage the tires and get the most out of them: there was a drop in performance, but for us that was the key to success," said Lorenzo’s teammate who took the lead from Pedrosa nine laps from the finish to never let go until the end. Dovizioso won with 3.5 seconds over Marc Marquez, who nevertheless tried everything to close the gap. In vain: the defending champion finally abdicated, also aware that the 20 points for second place were better than another fall !

“Dovi was too strong today,” admits Marc Marquez sportingly, also starting with the choice of hard-medium tires. This combination was the right one on Sunday in Catalonia, as Dani Pedrosa completed the podium with the same choice of tires. Conversely, the official Yamaha of Rossi and Viñales, wearing medium-medium, tasted during this 7th round of the season: the Iwata crest will try to correct the situation today during the official tests of after race held in Barcelona.

Analysis - 2017 MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix - Dovizioso (1st): The decline in tire performance was the key to our success - Used DUCATI

It should be noted that if all the pilots complained about the lack of grip offered by the track, Michelin did better than limit the breakage in these particular circumstances: on the one hand, because "only" three pilots left in the race ( Petrucci, Miller and Aleix Espargaro), but also and above all because the lap times remained at a very good level all weekend. Jonas Folger thus broke the race lap record in 1’45.969 in his third loop, while Dovizioso did not come far from lowering the race time record.. 

Last interesting indicator: "DesmoDovi" improved his race time by no less than 38 seconds compared to 2016, when he finished 10th. Ducati can therefore rub their hands at the end of this Catalan weekend, especially as Lorenzo and Petrucci had qualified on the front row and the Yamaha defector finished fourth after leading the first laps. !

Other – big – reason for satisfaction on the side of Bologna: with his victory and the modest 10th place of the leader of the Viñales championship, Dovizioso consolidates his second place in the standings with 104 points against 111 for the official Yamaha. At present, Viñales and Dovizioso are also the only ones who can boast of having won more than one race: three for the Spanish and two for the Italian, against a single success for Marquez and Pedrosa who follow provisional. And still zero wins for Rossi, fifth in the provisional classification…

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