Steering damper issue costs Andrea Dovizioso

A steering damper issue put a huge dent in Andrea Dovizioso’s quest to beat Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi to third place in the 2010 MotoGP standings.

The Repsol Honda rider was an early retirement in Phillip Island when he encountered a problem with the steering damper on the second lap.

The dejected Italian was lying in a challenging fifth and said: “In the first two laps though I felt the steering was stiff and on lap three this caused me to lose a lot of positions.

“I could control the bike but, although I completed another lap, it was too risky to keep riding and I had to come into the pits. There was a problem at the steering damper mounting – it had moved into an incorrect position, so now we will investigate the causes.”

For more details on a shocking weekend for the Repsol Honda squad, see the October 20 issue of MCN.