Dovizioso splashes to maiden victory

Added on Sunday, July 26th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Andrea Dovizioso made a splash to claim his first win of his MotoGP career in a dramatic final British Grand Prix at Donington Park, demonstrating his strong performance in difficult conditions.

As the seventeen bike-strong grid sat waiting for the start of what was predicted as a flag to flag race, questions were raised as to what tyre choice would be beneficial. The Ducati Marlboro Team duo of Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden were the only riders to opt for wet set-up, which unfortunately failed to pay off.

As the lights went out, pole-sitter Valentino Rossi shot away from his grid slot, reaffirming his first position, whilst teammate Jorge Lorenzo closely followed suit sweeping into second. Before long, the latter had muscled his way passed his experienced teammate, in a battle which also allowed the San Carlo Honda Gresini of Toni Elias through into the lead.

From here the thirty lap race was definitely anything but predictable, in a race that was very much dictated by the damp weather conditions. During the opening laps Rossi had briefly lost out and momentarily dropped to fourth, before hurdling the gaggle of Honda machines that had gathered in front of him.

As the race progressed the top riders seemingly lost out one by one; Elias was the first to succumb to the conditions, as his tyres just caught the slippery white line outlining the track at Starkey’s. Shortly afterwards, Lorenzo followed suit, sliding across the track at Goddard’s and into retirement, handing the lead back over to Italian teammate Rossi.

By this point, Dovizioso had worked his way through to second, and was eagerly chasing down his countryman. With the leading duo extending the gap back to the pursuing pack, the race for thrid and fourth began to hot up. Dani Pedrosa and Randy De Puniet entered their own thrilling battle, continuously swapping places for a number of laps.

Just ahead, drama ensued when Rossi slipped off of his Yamaha at the Foggerty Esses. Luckily he was able to immediately get going again, and rejoined the race down in eleventh place.

With just eight laps remaining, the former drizzle came down heavier, gradually turing to rain. This raised further questons of whether to risk a wet track or come into the pits to switch to their wet set-up bikes. Marco Melandri, Loris Capirossi, Chris Vermeulen and Mika Kallio opted for the latter choice, each pitting almost immediately. This, of course, benefited the likes of Rossi who was able to power ahead as they stopped, promoting him to seventh and beyond.

As the race entered the closing stages, Amercian Colin Edwards had fought back from a slow start, which left him fifteenth, to be in with a shout of his first MotoGP victory. Despite reeling in second placed De Puniet and leader Dovizioso, the victory eluded him, however he managed to take second from De Puniet towards the end of the final lap

After a tough but exciting race, it was Dovizioso who came through to take his maiden MotoGP win, in extreme circumstances. Edwards earned himself a respectable second with De Puniet completing the podium.

Commenting on his triumph, Dovizioso said: “This race was very difficult. With these conditions the temperature of the tyres was too low, and the light rainfall for the whole race meant that it was probably the worst scenario for riding on this tyre. We couldn’t change the bikes either, so it was really difficult to manage.

“Before Valentino crashed it was easy, because I just followed him; after that I needed to understand the track better,” he added. “Wearing a light visor also meant that I couldn’t see clearly which lines were the driest. At the end Randy (De Puniet) and Colin (Edwards) were riding at 100% and catching me, which was difficult to manage. I think maybe for the last two laps I was pushing so hard that they couldn’t risk reaching me.”

Rossi managed to fight his way back to fifth, just ahead of Britain’s Toseland, following an intense last lap battle between the two of them.

Rossi now holds a 25 point lead over Lorenzo, with the next round of the championship at Brno on the 16th August.

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