Andrea Dovizioso won the the MotoGP British Grand. Second and third in the race were the Yamaha drivers Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi.
Andrea Dovizioso
“I’m a bit surprised because for the race I had a good feeling, but not to be able to win. I expected Honda to be very competitive but it didn’t happen. During the race we have to ride in a different way to practice and that changed it. I was able to save the tyre, with Maverick and Marc [Marquez], and that helped me arrive at the end with better grip. I was also able to improve my speed in some corners. That was because I was able to see how they did those corners. I wasn’t faster. But I was in the right position at the right moment and that was the key.”
“What happened today is something special for us. We’re leading, but we’ve showed to everyone we have a chance to fight for the Championship. It’s long and the competitors are very strong – riders and bikes – so it’s open, but we’ve won four races in a different way and we work very well during the weekend. When we’re not fastest we’ve kept working, we go to a race and try to do the maximum. I was able to fight for a victory I didn’t expect. The bike has positives and negatives but I was able to play with it and make the most of the positives.”
What a race and what a season for Andrea Dovizioso! He takes over the championship lead! ?#BritishGP pic.twitter.com/wAnGNYKamB
— MotoGP™??? (@MotoGP) August 27, 2017
Maverick Viñales
“It was difficult, but I think we managed the race really well, especially with the electronics, we were really strong in all the areas. I think we did a good job. This weekend we came back, feeling strong again and that’s the positive point, especially during the last part of the race, during which we weren’t really strong before. This time we were the fastest on the last laps, so we are going to try to be more competitive and even stronger in the next races. I knew that on the last laps my bike was really good, so I was just trying to keep the pace and the concentration and save the tyres until the end.”
“For sure, I was able to do really good laps in the beginning, but then the tyre would have dropped a lot, so I was thinking about doing the other step: go slowly in the beginning and pushing at the end and this was the result. I was catching Dovi on the last lap and trying my best. I set one of my best laps on the last one, so I gave it everything to catch him, but honestly, today, second place was the best we could do. We have to be happy that we’re working in the correct way again.”
Valentino Rossi
“I’m satisfied because it was a great race for me. I was able to ride really well after a great start and I stayed in front and rode on the limit without making mistakes, so I enjoyed it a lot for 17 laps. I think this is a good way to celebrate my 300th race in MotoGP’s premier class. There remains a bit of frustration, because I knew on the last laps I would suffer a bit with the degradation of the rear tyre, but I think this weekend we improved a lot. We’re still not at the top, we have to do better if we want to try to win, but it was a good weekend.”
Dovizioso just keeps going from strength-to-strength ?
He’s nine points ahead of Marquez…but don’t count out Vinales and Rossi just yet. pic.twitter.com/owGcOt62kh
— #BritishGP ??? (@btsportmotogp) August 27, 2017
