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MotoGP, Dovizioso: "When I saw Marquez on the pit-board I said 'no, damn'"

"Alex deserved the podium, he went well and I'm happy for Danilo. With the right tyres I could have won, but it's okay to have scored points because I risked crashing many times. Rins almost hit me."

MotoGP: Dovizioso: "When I saw Marquez on the pit-board I said 'no, damn'"

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Andrea Dovizioso always offers a lucid analysis of what happens on track and also at Le Mans what he said at the end of the race is particularly striking, and it perfectly sums up his approach to the Grands Prix in this strange season. "In the end, the only thing that matters is the points you have on the Thursday before the race and those you have on Sunday evening. This is the only thing that counts.” In this specific case, it is clear - up to a certain point - that Dovizioso did not score a bad 4th place.

Dovizioso could certainly have done more and he is the first to admit it, but he also seems to know just as well that it was so easy to ruin everything with a zero in the standings that after Barcelona would have been almost fatal for his title quest. So the 13 points of Le Mans are welcome, above all because they were scored in a race in which his rivals for the title all scored less. Today, some of those points were also taken away from him by the 'wrong' Marquez.

"When I saw ‘Marquez’ on the pit-board I said 'but is it true? Fuck no!' - joked Dovizioso - but today Alex did well, he deserved it".

In the end, are you satisfied with the points or are you disappointed you missed out on the podium?

"In the end I have to be happy for the championship, because I scored some good points. You always have to look at how many points you have on Thursday and how many you have on Sunday after the race. This is the reality of every race. I could have scored more points, in the wet I know that everyone always expects a lot from us, in fact Danilo won and I'm happy for him, but in the end you also have to take a lot of risks to go fast. Today I almost crashed several times, in the end scoring points in these conditions makes me happy. Today we could have also been competitive in the dry, and that's good news. Quartararo was fast, but there were a lots of different Ducati riders around him, so anything could have happened. Every race tells a story, I don't know what might happen at Aragon. It's a crazy championship, you have to believe and keep pushing hard".

With Quartararo behind, winning would have been a great result…

"When you have a season like this, wasting points is not exactly ideal. Especially when you consider the points lost in Barcelona, ​​it pisses you off a bit. But in the end this is the sport and we have to keep going. It bugs you, but in the end, from the outside you cannot perceive the difficulties there are, how many mistakes you can make. If you could just understand how many times we risk crashing in the race, maybe you would look at things a bit differently. From the outside it all seems easy, instead making a mistake is very easy when there is so much effort. In the end I have to be happier than pissed off. Before Le Mans, the gap was bigger, so it's okay. We are not euphoric but satisfied. "

What can you tell us about the episode with Rins? He was about to cause total chaos...

"I was in front, I braked hard and Danilo hit me. I went a little bit wide and I think that's why Rins didn't hit me. At the end of that corner I found myself in fourth with a gap. I didn't expect to be in that situation! I was disappointed, because honestly I braked too long, I started braking like a killer. I locked the front and Danilo clipped me from the outside trying to pass me. Clipping me, we went a little wide. Maybe Rins would have hit us. Then I found myself behind Miller whose engine was smoking right in front of me. At first I found myself losing ground, as I wanted to pass Danilo to gain an advantage over those coming up from behind. It wasn’t a good moment ".

At the end of the race you seemed to be in difficulty. Could you have made a different choice of tyres?

"We could have made a better choice of tyres, but it's easy to say that after. It’s impossible to predict how long the rain can fall in a race like this. I suffered at the beginning; Danilo was really fast. Usually he suffers in the dry because he heats the tyre up too much and in the wet this becomes an advantage and he has to thank his weight. In the last ten laps when there was almost no water on the track I finished the tyres, I couldn't ride like him and the situation was also getting worse. I was about to crash ten times; I wanted the podium and I fought hard in the end not to lose a position to Oliveira. I'm disappointed because with a different tyre I could have fought for the podium, I'm sure. It was a choice made together with Michelin and I was quite convinced of what I had decided. With the same tyres as Zarco I would have won ".

What do you expect from Aragon?

"Honestly in this 2020 until you get on the track you don't know what you will find. The tyres are different in everything, everything changes on all tracks. It must be said that others should have been strong at Le Mans, instead there was only one Yamaha in front and it was surrounded by Ducatis. Here, too, in the end there were strange ups and downs, which from a certain point of view are also interesting for us. When they are fighting, the Yamaha riders are in trouble because of the kind of bikes they have. In the end we are always the best for the speed we have, so making predictions is impossible. The Suzukis also risked a lot here, I didn't expect that. I see that as positive and I want to fight for the title. "

 

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