Italy’s Andrea Dovizioso sealed back-to-back MotoGP wins by cruising to victory under searing temperatures at the Catalan GP on Sunday.
Dovizioso, who won just his third MotoGP race on home soil at the Italian Grand Prix last weekend, led home Honda’s Spanish duo Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa in a time of 44min 41.518 secs.
Victory also sees Dovizioso close to within seven points of championship leader Maverick Vinales as the Yamaha rider completed a disappointing weekend by finishing 10th.
With on track temperatures rising to over 50 degrees Celsius the race was unusually settled at the front for a long spell as all the riders aimed to protect their tyres.
“It was a strange weekend for everybody to manage the track, the grip, the temperature, it was very difficult,” said Dovizioso.
“It was a strange race, we couldn’t push any lap because the rear tyre drops a lot, but I had the speed so I was able to manage and stay on the front without pushing.”
The Ducati rider had been happy to sit in between the Honda riders as Pedrosa led from pole position.
However, Dovizioso made his move with nine laps to go and quickly eased out into a comfortable lead with Marquez also leaving his teammate behind in the battle for second.
Marquez leapfrogs Valentino Rossi into third in the championship standings, 21 points further back on Dovizioso, as Rossi could also only manage eighth.
“It was not an easy weekend,” said Marquez, who crashed four times in practice and qualifying on Saturday.
“I never give up. I just push, push, push all weekend and then during the race I saw first of all my target was to finish in front of Dani because I thought he was the fastest.
“But Dovi today again was one step faster than us, especially on the main straight.”
Pedrosa moves up to fourth in the world championship on the back of a fourth podium finish in the last five races.
“Basically (it was) a tough race because the tyres were suffering a lot,” said Pedrosa.
“Since the first lap I couldn’t push, I didn’t feel the grip.
“I was trying to manage the tyres to see at the end if I could stay in my rhythm, but Dovi was very fast today, catching me a lot in the straight and towards the end of the race I lost more and more grip.”
Dovizioso’s Ducati teammate Jorge Lorenzo had started from second on the grid, but the three-time world champion slipped well down the field before recovering with a flying final lap to seal fourth.
Rossi made the most of a difficult weekend as he had qualified 13th and is still recovering from the aftereffects of being hospitalised by chest and stomach injuries suffered in a motocross training accident last month.
The nine-time world champion across all categories managed to gain two points on teammate Vinales to sit 28 points back overall. – Agence France-Presse
