Dovizioso has edge
ANDREA DOVIZIOSO stormed to the top of the timesheets last night ahead of this weekend’s Argentina MotoGP.
The championship leader clocked a lap of 1min 39.181secs at the Termas de Rio Hondo Circuit, as times tumbled in the closing moments and less than half a second separated the top 13.
“I expected to be more competitive than last year, but Argentina is a strange race, we will have to see what the weather conditions are going to be like,” said the Italian Mission Winnow Ducati rider.
Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller bounced back from a crash moments into the session to hit top spot with a few minutes to run, but was knocked down to second by Dovizioso. LEWIS HAMILTON has been warned to buck up his ideas or risk a repeat of his failed 2016 title bid. The Brit dramatically lost out to Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg three years ago after failing to win any of the opening five races. Hamilton made amends by winning successive championships, but started this year’s title defence by failing to convert pole position into race victory in Australia.
And David Coulthard, a 13-time Grand Prix winner, insists Hamilton can not afford a repeat of the display that saw him crushed by rejuvenated team-mate Valtteri Bottas. As the drivers prepared for tomorrow’s Bahrain GP, Coulthard said: “You clearly don’t want to be giving points away – as we saw against Rosberg, he lost the championship by five points. “Had he not blown up in Malaysia and various other things along the way, then he would have been world champion again.
“We’re all curious to see whether Bottas is performing at a new-found level or a combination of the car not quite talking to Lewis, a bad start and generally ending up out of sequence with that early pit stop.”
Five-time world champ Hamilton had been flawless in the build-up to the curtain-raiser, but Bottas stole the lead at the first corner and did not look back. But despite the Finn’s dominant showing, Coulthard (left) is not convinced that he will challenge Hamilton.
He added: “I wouldn’t read too much into it right now – I don’t think Bottas has reinvented himself and Hamilton has lost it.
“I think it’s a combination of marginal gains for Bottas and, let’s not say a bad weekend because he qualified on pole and finished second, but it was an average weekend by Lewis’ standards.
“Let’s judge them when we’ve had a few races.”