Difficult Dutch weekend for Ducati

Assen was a difficult race for the Ducati squad with Andrea Iannone able to salvage a top five finish despite suffering from braking problems. Andrea Dovizioso wasn’t so lucky with the Italian breaking his seat unit and suffering tremendous vibration throughout the 26 lap race.

The braking problem has affected Iannone in recent weeks but overall he was still pleased to have been able to finish fourth and he felt that he had the potential to have been closer to Lorenzo for third. Even so it was clear that fourth was the maximum that he could have hoped for on a difficult day.

“The feeling wasn’t at 100 percent,” said Iannone. “It’s difficult to manage the bike and especially the change of the direction. I think the rear don’t help me to stop the bike. I push a lot braking in front. I stay at the limit. In the change of direction when I use the front brake it’s really strong. In this track this is a big disadvantage.”

For Dovizioso the broken rear seat unit meant that he had little option but to cruise for most of the race with huge vibrations throughout. At the final corner he was overtaken by Pramac Ducati rider, Danilo Petrucci, and relegated to 12^th.

“I’m very disappointed about the result at the end,” said the Italian. “My start wasn’t so good but I was able to recover some position until fifth. I was quite close to Andrea [Iannone]. Until tht point everything was quite ok. I had a problem on the left of the bike. There start a big vibration, a big movement to the front tyre. I thought I had some problem with the tyre.

“I wasn’t able to keep the braking and speed in the middle of the corner, enough to slow down. Lap by lap I slowed down too much until twelfth position. We broke the rear of the bike. The seat. That created a vibration to the front. I would say the movement became bigger lap by lap. Something broke inside in the middle of the race.”