Andrea Dovizioso says he was more worried about the competitiveness of his Ducati MotoGP machine in the Spanish grand prix at Jerez than the difficulties caused by his fractured collarbone.
Dovizioso-who picked up his collarbone injury in a motocross crash at home in Modena just two weeks ago-managed to wheel his Desmosedici to a strong third place after passing the Pramac-run GP20 of Jack Miller with a decisive move at Turn 6 on the penultimate tour.
The Italian says that while he “wasn’t really worried” about the effect his injured collarbone would have on his race performance, he was concerned with the lack of speed shown by the factory Ducati outfit throughout practice and qualifying.
“The reality is I wasn’t really worried about the collarbone but more about our speed and whether we could be consistent enough in these (hot) conditions,” explained Dovizioso after the race.
“I have great people around me that immediately told me the plan and the operation went well so I wasn’t too worried about it (collarbone injury).
“I was more worried about the weekend, and we struggled a lot throughout.
Dovizioso conceded that he nearly gave up “three times during the race” so bad were his struggles in keeping a consistent pace with the GP20, but superior tyre wear relative to his rivals allowed him to make progress in the closing stages.
“I didn’t give up and I was able to stay there when they (riders in front) dropped, so this gave me the possibility to arrive here (on the podium),” added Dovizioso.
“In the race I was struggling so much, three times during the race I almost gave up because I couldn’t maintain the rhythm I wanted, I didn’t have the speed and I managed to get the podium because we did a great job during the weekend and we improved a little bit, and this (improvement) was just enough.”
