Andrea Dovizioso says his lacklustre MotoGP German Grand Prix, in which he was a distant seventh, was “normal” for the Ducati at the Sachsenring.
Dovizioso qualified fifth, while teammate Jorge Lorenzo was third and Ducati stablemate Danilo Petrucci was just 0.025s from pole in second, and was tipped to be a threat on Sunday.
However, the Italian failed to make any inroads on the podium battle early on, and dropped behind Alvaro Bautista on the year-old Aspar GP17 late on to finish down in seventh.
Dovizioso admits the Sachsenring layout is “not good” for the Ducati as it cannot exploit its strong acceleration, but feels the marque “confirmed” its improvements over last year by getting four bikes inside the top seven.
“I think the race was ok. I think our bike is not good with this layout, it's normal,” Dovizioso, whose points deficit to Marc Marquez has opened to 77, said.
“We are very strong in the acceleration, but not when the corner is very long. This is normal.
“I'm happy because we confirmed our bike is better than last year because we have a chance to stay on top, and four Ducatis with not a lot of seconds [back] from Marc. So this is much better than the past.
“The point where I'm not happy was the drop of the tyre, I couldn't manage speed and the drop in the perfect way, and in the end I couldn't push the last 13 laps and I lose too much.”
Marquez expected stronger Ducati challenge
Marquez, who won his ninth-successive German Grand Prix by just over two seconds, admits he expected both Dovizioso and Lorenzo – who led for the first 10 laps – to be stronger than they were, and says their struggled was “good news” for him.
“Maybe the two guys that I miss – well, for me was good news – but, after the practice, was two the two Ducati,” Marquez, who now holds a 46-point championship advantage, stated.
“I saw Lorenzo was pushing a lot in the beginning, then I see immediately that he start to drop a lot.
“I say, okay, now is time to overtake, it's so difficult to overtake Ducati riders but I was able to overtake him and then just try to keep pushing.
“And the other guy, Dovi, that in the race pace, on the warm-up, in the FP4, he was very very fast, but then looks like he drop a lot the pace on the race.”
