Andrea Dovizioso hinted his current championship deficit to Marc Marquez is beginning to appear an insurmountable margin, and said the current gap to the Movistar Yamahas is of greater concern after the Italian could place no higher than seventh in the latest MotoGP outing in Germany.
Another solid MotoGP weekend had just passed, but Danilo Petrucci couldn’t hide his frustration at narrowly missing out on a podium finish, with the Italian critical of Jorge Lorenzo’s attempts to resist his pass late into the race.
It was a day of contrasting fortunes for Andrea Dovizioso, who rescued a second row starting place from a position of peril for the German MotoGP outing at the Sachsenring.
Jorge Lorenzo feels breaking Marc Marquez’s Sachsenring domination is a realistic goal ahead of the German MotoGP, while he concede ending his rival’s run of pole positions slipped away due to a mistake during his best qualifying lap.
Danilo Petrucci has admitted using Jorge Lorenzo as a rider to chase during his best qualifying lap helped him power to second place on the grid at Sachsenring.
Jorge Lorenzo may have admitted Friday’s MotoGP timesheets that followed Friday’s free practice did not tell the full story, but he soon assured assembled media that “we’re one of the fastest, one of the strongest” at the Sachsenring.
Andrea Dovizioso’s conviction that Ducati would be better placed to challenge Marc Marquez’s invincibility at the Sachsenring in 2018 than during previous years proved totally founded on Friday, after three GP18s occupied the top four places in MotoGP FP2.
Andrea Dovizioso feels his Ducati package is stronger this year than his MotoGP world title-challenging effort from 2017 but accepts too many mistakes have cost him in the championship battle.
Jorge Lorenzo has underlined the 'huge' significance of the revised fuel tank shape in his mid-season MotoGP revival, despite fading from the lead to seventh place last time at Assen.
If any circuit can prove the extent of the recent progress made by Jorge Lorenzo and Ducati, it is this weekend's Sachsenring round. The five-time world champion has never won at the German venue in any of his 15 appearances, covering the 125, 250 and MotoGP classes.
Full warm-up results for the fifth round of the 2018 Bennetts British Superbike Championship (BSB) at Knockhill. 1. Glenn Irwin GBR Be Wiser Ducati Panigale R 47.363s 2. Leon Haslam GBR JG Speedfit Kawasaki ZX-10RR 47.374s
Full free practice results (3) for the fifth round of the 2018 Bennetts British Superbike Championship (BSB) at Knockhill. 1. Glenn Irwin GBR Be Wiser Ducati Panigale R 47.347s 2. Josh Brookes AUS McAMS Yamaha YZF-R1 47.439s
Danilo Petrucci lamented his lousy qualifying position in the wake of a frustrating Sunday of MotoGP action at Assen, as he crashed out of twelfth place when confident he had the pace to at least battle with the leading group of eight.
Starting from tenth on the grid, after being at the wrong end of an ultra-close qualifying, Jorge Lorenzo faced a challenge just to reach the front of Sunday's Dutch MotoGP. Yet the Spaniard was into second place by the first corner and went on to lead more laps than any other rider.
Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo were fortunate to remain upright after a high-speed clash in the early stages of Sunday's thrilling Dutch MotoGP at Assen.
Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso saw their Dutch MotoGP podium hopes end after a 'bar-to-'bar braking contest into Turn One, on the penultimate lap.
On Friday at the Dutch MotoGP, Andrea Dovizioso spoke about wanting to improve the partnership between his riding style and the GP18, in the aftermath of back-to-back wins for team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.