Andrea Dovizioso seized a spectacular win in the Qatar GP, the opening round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship. The Italian repeated the result from 2018. He once again beat Marc Marquez to the finish line for just 23 thousandths of a second. For Dovizioso, who scored five consecutive podiums at the Losail track, it’s the 12th win with Ducati.
“I’m super happy about this win, especially because after the tests I wouldn’t have expected to be so fast”, Dovizioso said
“We stayed focused and we made progress in each session. Our strategy in the race was simply to preserve the tyre, and this made the difference, but it wasn’t easy because I led for most of the race and I couldn’t really study my opponents. [Marc] Marquez gave it everything he could, as usual, and pushed me to the limit. We made the most of our strenghths, that is, acceleration and top speed, but we still need to improve our corner speed. This year there are plenty of quick riders and it’ll be crucial not to lose too many points on less favourable tracks. We need to keep our feet on the ground and continue working in this direction.”
Danilo Petrucci also rode a solid race, recovering several positions after suffering a non-optimal start from third row
After climbing back to third, Petrucci faced a small drop and finished the race in sixth, only two seconds behind his teammate.
“My sixth place is still positive because we scored important points for the championship. Unfortunately, I was hindered by a less than optimal start. But the race pace wasn’t very fast and I was able to recover positions quite quickly. Still, I struggled to pass other riders and push hard in braking. In retrospect, choosing the soft tyre for both the front and rear was a gamble. But we expected the temperatures to drop further and we also weren’t as fast as usual on the straight. That said, the championship has just begun and I’m confident we’ll bounce back soon”, Petrucci commented.
