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Dovizioso: Strategy key to beating "aggressive" Marquez

Motegi MotoGP race winner Andrea Dovizioso says preparing a last-lap strategy was key to seeing off title rival Marc Marquez in a 'tense' duel for victory.

Race winner Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team

Race winner Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Podium: race winner Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team
Race winner Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team
Race winner Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team, Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team
Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team, Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Race winner Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team, second place Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

At the start of the final tour of the wet-weather 24-lap event, the Ducati rider looked set to finish runner-up to Marquez – but a major moment at Turn 8 for the Honda man allowed Dovizioso to line up an overtake three corners later.

Dovizioso then prepared for Marquez's inevitable retaliation at the final corner, allowing the Spaniard to run wide down the inside and getting better traction out of the corner to arrive at the chequered flag 0.249s earlier.

“Marc is always very aggressive, he's always difficult to fight with,” Dovizioso recalled.

“I knew it was very difficult to stay with him, but I have a positive part of the track and some negative and I was able to not lose too much [time].

“I was losing a little bit, maybe it wasn't enough to try to overtake him in Turn 11 with that gap, but maybe he was pushing too much, he did a mistake, and I knew I had to do everything perfect in two corners to be ready in Turn 11.

“That was already, at the beginning of the lap, my strategy, but it was difficult because he was making a good laptime.”

The conclusion to the race was almost a carbon copy of the two riders' duel in Austria earlier in the season, as Marquez tried a last-corner lunge, went wide and lost out to Dovizioso on traction.

The Italian said the approach to the final corner was firmly on his mind as soon as he passed Marquez.

“When I overtake him in Turn 11, I already thought in Austria, I already thought the strategy in the last corner,” Dovizioso said.

“Two corners remained, and I knew that in those two corners everything can happen, because I was so slow in that two corners, and it was Marc behind me.

“I had to try to make a wide left corner, and it was the right decision, because I close the door, because for him it was very difficult to try to overtake me. And when he did, he couldn't change direction very fast.

“It was so exciting to win this race. To fight with Marc is always, you have a big tension, and it was also important for the championship.”

The Italian admitted he “didn't feel so good” in the early stages of the race, and reckoned he didn't have the pace of the two riders ahead of him at the midway point.

“For sure during the race, in the middle of the race, I wasn't fast like Marc and Danilo [Petrucci]," he admitted. "And I didn't give up, I had to take some risks to stay with them, for sure I take some risks.”

But as Petrucci, on a different tyre strategy, dropped away and settled for third, Dovizioso picked up the pace and passed Marquez with six laps to go – only for Marquez to return the favour three laps later.

“When I overtake him [Marquez], I wanted to make a small gap to not finish the race with him, but I realised I didn't have any more the rear tyre," added Dovizioso.

“And we slow down the laptime, it was very difficult to be precise, to be smooth. I saw at that time it was just about strategy, to overtake, to be in the right position in the right moment.”

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Edition

Australia