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Dovizioso: Two key decisions made Valencia win possible
Andrea Dovizioso says his victory in the MotoGP season finale in Valencia was made possible by an important call in warm-up and a mid-race set-up tweak.
David Gruz
Edited: Nov 19, 2018, 1:26 PM
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With most sessions during the weekend taking place on a soaked or damp track, the MotoGP field used most of the wet tyres available over the weekend, with some riders leaving just one fresh rear tyre for the race.
However, as the Valencia Grand Prix was red-flagged, riders had an opportunity to put on new tyres, and Dovizioso was among those to make use of it, having opted to save an extra rear tyre in the Sunday morning warm-up.
This, coupled with set-up changes made as a reaction to Valentino Rossi's charge before the red flag came up, was key to the Ducati rider's triumph.
"At the beginning, the first race, Alex [Rins] start too fast and I had to decide to take a risk and try to follow him or not," Dovizioso said. "I decide to not follow him, it was too much for me at that time.
"After, I understood I have some margin to play and the rain become heavier and heavier and I was able to be a bit faster than him.
"That was good but after some laps I saw Valentino much faster than me, he was almost one second faster than me, he catch me so quick and it was difficult to manage Alex and Vale and every lap the track became worse, there was a lot of crashes.
"I am so happy about that and finish the first [part of the] race on the bike because [it] became impossible, the last lap we did.
"The reason why we won is because we did a right decision this morning not to use a new tyre on the warm-up, so we have two tyres for the race.
"I was able to put new tyres for the second race on the rear and also we did some changes on the set-up because Valentino was much faster in braking and entry.
"The reason why I could not be strong like him, it was the rear, so we did something to be able to brake a bit harder. The mix, the tyre and set-up work well."
Neither Rins nor Rossi had fresh tyres for the restart, with the latter joking of Dovizioso in his post-race session: "I don't understand where he hid that tyre."
Dovizioso continued: "I wanted to stop Alex because I was worried to make what happened in the first race.
"At the end I realise after two laps I was a bit faster than the first race and they were a bit slower so I was able to put a good rhythm.
"Alex could not follow me because I think he did not have a new tyre, and also Valentino."
Podium: race winner Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / LAT Images
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