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MotoGP, Dovizioso: Too many strategy mistakes, lesson for the future

The Italian explains: "We set up both bikes for the wet and we paid for it. Marquez is very good at managing these types of situations"

MotoGP: Dovizioso: Too many strategy mistakes, lesson for the future

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After a positive weekend and an outstanding performance in qualifying, Andrea Dovizioso had said he was ready to battle both in the dry or the wet, but the change in conditions during the race compromised all the previous plans and predictions. In fact, the Italian made a mistake in his strategy, which is unusual for a calculating rider like him, putting off the bike change for too long and thereby compromising his race. “What a pity –Dovi begins – since we were not able to reap as much as we had hoped because of a series of mistakes. In any case, we need to take something good from every situations and today we learned some things about the strategy to employ. Obviously, when you are competing in a world championship, there should not be any mistakes like that, but it is never easy.”

Andrea begins by telling how things went, highlighting the first important detail.

“We started with both the bikes set up for the wet, so then we did not have the dry bike ready for the change after a few laps; that was the first mistake. Besides that, I must admit that I would not have gone into pit lane of my own initiative, so there are mistakes on both sides. Consequently, in the future we will need a better strategy that starts from the garage and we will just need to do things differently than today, whereas on my part, I will work on it. Stopping early is not easy, since it is a situation where you need to anticipate something even if you don’t think it will happen.”

Another point in Dovi’s analysis has to do with the tyres. However, all with a positive note.

“We opted for the soft – soft solution and the rear tyre suffered. The positive thing is that I did not give up, despite feeling uneasy on the bike, and even though I was not in the right conditions to do the same times as the leaders, I got significantly close to them. When you go back out on the track and you’re in 16th place with on one in front of you, it is not an easy situation to manage, but I did it and I am happy.”

But the bitter taste remains, so he tries to search for the reasons and consequences of the decisions made in the Ducati garage.

“In order to implement the strategy of being sure to have the second bike ready – number 04 analyses – in the event of problems during the warm up, you then need to turn a few laps to change tyres and settings on the other bike. The messages on the instrument cluster? I’m not using them yet, but that has nothing to do with our strategy mistake. We based everything on the fact that during the weekend the track had always taken a long time to dry out, but in the race the opposite happened because of the humidity and the sun coming out in the early laps. I don’t want to make excuses for anyone, but we mustn’t be judge and jury.”

And if Dovizioso blames strategy in the Ducati camp, one of his direct rivals in the championship (Marquez) can celebrate the win, precisely because of perfect tactics.

“Marquez is in a league of his own, because he is very good at managing these types of situations. You need to take him into consideration if he opts for certain solutions, but it we had followed his choices, things may not necessarily have gone differently.”

In any case, it is still anyone’s championship and Dovizioso has by no means lost his proverbial lucidity.

“The championship is long and there are a lot of components to manage. We need to acknowledge the importance of our mistakes and draw experience for the future.”

Translated by Jonathan Blosser
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