Andrea Dovizioso claims Czech MotoGP in 1-2 Ducati finish
Andrea Dovizioso has kickstarted his MotoGP campaign with a much-needed victory at Brno beating Ducati team-mate Jorge Lorenzo and championship leader Marc Marquez in a frantic closing laps battle.
After Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi traded stints in the lead over the opening stages, the race pace proved to be remarkably slower than predicted with riders opting to conserve their tyre life ahead of a tense final third of the race.
The predicted front trio of Dovizioso, Lorenzo and Marquez bolted ahead at the front with four laps to go setting personal fastest times to bolt clear of Rossi and Cal Crutchlow.
Despite the front three exchanging a number of passes Dovizioso appeared to have a small edge with a smoother charge. The Italian rider put it into play on the final lap to steer clear of any late lunges from either of his Spanish rivals to clinch victory – his first win since the 2018 opener in Qatar.
That left Lorenzo to sprint to the chequered flag in second place just 0.012s ahead of Marquez who had to settle for a rostrum for Repsol Honda to strengthen his championship lead.
After dropping down the order Rossi grabbed fourth place from Crutchlow at the finish line with Pramac Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci almost a second off the pair in sixth place.
Johann Zarco lost touch with the front-runners in the closing stages so had to settle for seventh on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 but ahead of Friday’s fastest rider Dani Pedrosa on the Repsol Honda.
Alvaro Bautista capped an impressive race weekend in ninth place for Angel Nieto Ducati as he continued to demonstrate his worth looking for a 2019 ride.
Both Suzuki riders suffered a late race fade with Andrea Iannone dropping to 10th and Alex Rins directly behind him in 11th.
After a poor qualifying Jack Miller produced a minor recovery in 12th place for Pramac Ducati as MotoGP rookie duo Franco Morbidelli (Marc VDS Honda) and Hafizh Syahrin (Tech 3) battled for the final points with Aleix Espargaro taking 15th for Aprilia.
It was a disaster start for Maverick Vinales (Movistar Yamaha) in a turbulent race weekend for the Spaniard as he was involved in a three-rider crash in the opening lap with Honda wildcard Stefan Bradl and Red Bull KTM’s Bradley Smith.
The Czech Republic round became a nightmare race for the KTM squad with Pol Espargaro suffering a broken left collarbone in morning warm-up and failing to make the start.
Dovizioso: Brno win proof of Ducati gains
Andrea Dovizioso says his longawaited second victory for the year is evidence of Ducati’s improvements with his GP18 this season but accepts his earlier crashes in the campaign mean the MotoGP world championship picture remains ‘very bad’.
The Ducati rider has returned to winning ways for the first time since the 2018 opener in Qatar after seeing off team-mate Jorge Lorenzo and championship leader Marc Marquez for victory at Brno.
Dovizioso’s triumph sees him jump up to third place in the riders’ standings and trim the gap to Marquez down to 68 points, with Valentino Rossi still holding second place 19 points ahead of his fellow countryman after finishing fourth in the Czech Republic.
Dovizioso says his success in Brno maintains his confidence in the performance gains Ducati has found with its 2018 bike with a strong pace ‘every weekend’.
“If you study every weekend you can easily that our bike is better than last year,” Dovizioso said. “The point is that we have done three zeros so in the championship and that is very bad.
“In all these three of those races we were fighting for the podium so we lost a lot of points. I was feeling better and I was able to fight in a better way.
“I am not 100% happy, I think we still have to prepare the tyre in a better way but overall our bike is good.”
Dovizioso pinpointed a smoother and stronger acceleration with his Ducati allowing him to produce a quicker pace, while managing his tyre life, and with the second half of the 2018 campaign ahead he hopes to use the result to maintain his recent results turnaround.