Repsol Honda riders Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa put on a battling display in the Qatar Grand Prix, finishing in fifth and eleventh places in the delayed opening round of the MotoGP World Championship. Both came away feeling positive after an eventful weekend, yet also believed their finishing positions didn’t fully reflect their potential in this dramatic 22-lap race.
Making his race debut in the factory Honda team, Dovizioso didn’t get the best of starts and slipped from fourth on the grid to seventh in the first few corners. The 23-year-old Italian then unleashed a series of scorching moves in the opening laps, climbing to third place and setting off in pursuit of Valentino Rossi. His blistering progress was only subdued by a feeling of reduced grip from the front of his RC212V which forced Dovizioso to slow slightly and adjust his riding style. He came home in a creditable fifth to collect 11 points.
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No one would have believed his Repsol Honda team-mate, Dani Pedrosa, was riding injured as he stormed through the field from his starting position of 14th. The tough Spaniard was up to an amazing sixth place by lap eight and, considering that he’s been unable to ride for over five weeks as he recovered from surgery, an incredible result looked possible. However, the 24-year-old began to experience some vibration from his front wheel and started slip back through the field. He wasn’t helped by Alex de Angelis who spectacularly slammed into the side of Pedrosa - who had been forced wide as Chris Vermeulen slipped by to take sixth place. At the chequered flag, a battered and bruised Pedrosa valiantly held on to eleventh place to collect five valuable points - confirming that his decision to race in Qatar was the right one.
The Repsol Honda squad now heads for their home race, the Japanese Grand Prix which takes place at the Twin Ring Motegi, in two week’s time.
Andrea Dovizioso, 5th “I didn’t start well but I was able to overtake some riders and get into third position. During the first three laps the machine was performing really well - as it had during practice - and I tried to keep in contact with Valentino, but then I started struggling with the front. It was folding entering the corners and, later, also mid-corner, so I couldn’t turn as I would have liked. I had to slow down and compensate by turning with the rear tyre. We never had this issue during practice or the pre-season tests, so we need to understand what happened and do some more work to adapt the machine to the tyres. It was a very hard fight today, and I’m satisfied that we learned a lot here in practice and during the race. Now we’ll analyze the data and work hard for the next one in Japan.”.
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Dani Pedrosa, 11th “Overall I’m happy because of my progress over the weekend. I improved in every session and I’m glad to have come here and scored five points - though I’m also slightly disappointed because it could even have been ten or eleven. I got a good start and the race was going very well at the beginning. After seven or eight laps, though, I had started to get some vibration with the front wheel which became more severe as the race progressed. I started to lose grip at the front and my lap times suffered, so we’ll have to check what the issue was. I also suffered a lot physically in the race, and de Angelis gave me a big hit mid-race. The collision was avoidable I think because he could have passed me cleanly. My knee was giving me a lot of pain by the end and my left arm was pretty tired too. Still, we came away having completed the race and with a few points, which was our target, so I’m happy.”
Kazuhiko Yamano - Team Manager “Both riders were fighting hard to the chequered flag and I’m very pleased with their performance this weekend. We’ve amassed a lot of data from both machines and from Andrea and Dani’s feedback, and we’ll use this to work on the areas where we need to improve our machine’s performance. Now we’re back racing again we know what we’ve got to do. The weekend has been positive overall, but fifth and 11th isn’t where we want to be, so we’ll continue to work hard and move forward.”
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