Andrea Dovizioso took the chequered flag in sixth place today at the end of the British Grand Prix, round 12 of the MotoGP World Championship which was held at Silverstone. The Italian, who started from row 4, made a great charge through the field to catch the leading group, but had to settle for sixth place due to increasing stiffness in his right forearm, which prevented him from pushing hard in the final stages of the race.
A crash on the other hand brought an end to Andrea Iannone’s race, after the Italian, who had started from row 3, moved into second place after getting the better of Pedrosa, Marquez, Crutchlow and Rossi. Unfortunately the Ducati Team rider also suffered a similar physical problem to his team-mate and a crash on lap 14 put an end to his superb run.
The British GP was held in cloudy weather conditions but on a dry surface, with air and track temperatures of 18°. The race was halted on the opening lap because of a crash involving Loris Baz and Pol Espargarò and it was then restarted and run over 19 laps.
Andrea Dovizioso: I feel bad for the team
“After powering away well at the first start, I wasn’t able to repeat it the second time around and was left a little bit behind, so I lost touch with the leading group. I had to push hard to try and close the gap, but I wasn’t able to ride well: half-way through I began to have a problem with my right forearm and from that moment onwards my race turned into an ordeal. I feel bad for the team, today we could surely have got a better result, but I was just unable to push hard enough. I almost crashed a number of times just trying to stay in sixth place, because I was struggling to keep the bike under control. It was a pity, because judging by the pace of the guys in front of me, we could have had a chance of fighting for second place.”
Andrea Iannone: This situation is difficult to accept
“I’m very disappointed because I was having a great race and we surely had a chance to finish on the podium. Unfortunately just before the mid-point of the race, I began to have fatigue in my right forearm and I was no longer able to control the bike perfectly, which caused me a lot of problems. I really had to struggle a lot, but I didn’t want to stop because for me this situation was difficult to accept. When I arrived at turn 17 on the fourteenth lap, I was late in changing direction, hit a bump and crashed because I just didn’t have the strength to control the bike. It’s a real shame, because today we could have scored a very good result”.
Kiko Giles @MotoGPKiko