MotoGP, Dovizioso: Tyre performance threw me off

The rain that fell on the Sachsenring shuffled the deck of an already complicated mechanism of this season and there was no joy for Andrea Dovizioso this Saturday with a tenth place spot on the grid that is of no small concern to the new championship leader.

“I am not happy about tenth place –Dovi explains – since in MotoGP these days, especially on the Sachsenring, starting from the front is important. I am disappointed with the qualifiers today, first of all because of the way the tyres reacted, which threw me off. Yesterday I did 25 laps with the same tyres without any drop in performance. To the contrary, they performed their best at the end, whereas today after four laps the rear tyre was finished, despite the fact that I tried not to push in the first laps. Consequently, when I attempted a time attack it did not go the way I wanted it to since the traction control kicks in excessively with the drop in tyre performance and limits me.”

It was an unexpected situation for Andrea, who is facing a difficult weekend to interpret, despite his proverbial skill at finding the right setup.

“It’s a disaster. We are not struggling in the water, but between Assen, yesterday and today, we found three different problems and it is a difficult situation to manage. The positive side is that I am between Maverick and Valentino, although the two factory Hondas and Cal are out front and in the dry they have a better pace ours. I do not have the situation under control, so I can’t say what the actual limit is.”

The race tomorrow is shaping up to be a difficult comeback, but the Italian has no intention of changing his strategy: “I will not change my approach to the race, even if I am starting from farther back. I will be aggressive as always but thinking of getting the most out of the race in terms of the championship. I don’t know what the race will be like tomorrow: the Hondas are fast and a lot of riders have a pace in the low 1’22s, so overtaking and catching up will be complicated. In any case, anything can happen, given the fact that even after Saturday at Assen we did not think we were as fast as we were in the race. Petrux’s signing? I am very happy. He deserves it because he is riding very well.”