MotoGP: ‘Complicated’ race for championship leader Dovizioso

Andrea Dovizioso has admitted that yesterday’s Dutch TT at Assen was a ‘complicated’ race for the factory Ducati rider, after being forced to pick his way through the field and to battle with slippery and treacherous conditions through the race.

However, the Italian was able to put on a solid and safe performance to take fifth place and valuable championship points – enough to wrestle control of the series lead away from crasher Maverick Viñales and to find himself in a new position!

“The race was a very difficult one and having to start from row three complicated things a bit. At the start I wasn’t able to be very smooth and I lost touch with the leading group, but I remained focussed to see where I could recover and when Viñales crashed in front of me, I pushed hard to get back up with the leading group.

“At that moment I was the quickest on the track and this is a good sign for our bike. When I came up on the leaders it started to rain but you couldn’t really see where the track was dry and where it wasn’t. For this reason, I didn’t want to take any risks and I tried to finish the race in the best possible way to score some valuable points for the championship.”

And, with the championship lead in hand now for the first time in his career, Dovi says that it proves that their approach is paying off for them.

“We go back home in the lead of the table and it’s a new emotion for me because I’ve never been in the lead of MotoGP. I want to thank all my team because this weekend we again worked really well and despite the constantly changeable weather conditions, we made the right decisions, we stayed calm and in this end it all paid off.”