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Dovizioso has a dark expression on his face after qualifying at Phillip Island. His 11th place time with Marquez in pole position is a fine mess for the race. Andrea’s problems began before qualifying, when he crashed on a downhill in FP4.
Andrea was not hurt, but “that crash shook my confidence and on this track that’s important. It didn’t go as I had hoped”, he explains.
What happened in qualifying?
“I made 3 mistakes just on my fastest lap. My position on the grid does not reflect reality. In FP4 I had gone fast. With the medium tyre only Zarco and Marquez were fast and I was with them. I was in good shape.”
Marquez also crashed today, but it didn’t have an effect on him…
“He is used to finding the limit and exceeding it and then managing it. He is very good at that and you have to have that mentality – you can’t learn it. I am not very familiar with his career, but I think he has had that approach from a very young age. The negative side is that there is always a risk of getting hurt, but you are not conditioned by the crashes.”
And he took his 44th pole position out of 88 MotoGP races.
“There isn’t much to interpret. He is incredibly fast and he especially knows how to be fast when he wants to be. Even Valentino, like almost all the other riders, has to get ready for the flying lap. Marc doesn’t.”
What does it mean to start so far back?
“It could be a limitation, but it is pointless to dwell on it. I need to focus on the details, figure out why I was unable to be fast on corners after the crash.”
Was it a problem not having that bike in the qualifiers?
“I was trying a different setup. I would have stopped on the next lap, so the crash helped me choose (he laughs).”
What strategy will you use in the race?
“First of all, we’ll need to see what conditions we find, but if the track is dry it will be important not to get bottlenecked in the opening laps. I’ll also need a bit of luck and then I’ll be able to create the right situation to recover ground. Anything can happen in 27 laps.”
It could help you to have Viñales attacking Marquez…
“He will certainly try, but there are several riders that can maintain a good pace. A lot will depend on tyre choice.”
What is your real objective?
“Realistically, the podium. To say that I’ll set out to win tomorrow would be a lie and I’m not good at telling them. Phillip Island is a strange track and I want to think positively. I definitely won’t give up. I will just need to ride as smoothly as possible and I’ll figure out my strategy as I go.”
In any case, you were the best Ducati rider…
“Our bike is not easy to ride on this track. This is certainly something to bear in mind, but more for the engineers than for me. The important thing is that up to yesterday I was doing well. I wasn’t the fastest, but I could still stay with the fastest.”
And if it rains?
“This morning the track was not completely wet, but it was important to turn a few laps to test the tyres and sort the electronics.”
