The French Grand Prix has had a good ending for Andrea Dovizioso, who after a weekend’s work in the background was able to collect its fruit today. In a race that went from low to high, the Repsol Honda Team rider finally achieved a hard-fought podium that allows him to continue along the positive line started in Qatar. On the other side of the garage, Dani Pedrosa did not have his best end of race. After a good weekend, two errors in the last lap when trying to up the pace to prevent his team-mate Dovizioso from overtaking him, dropped him to fifth place in the end, when he had been riding in third place until the penultimate lap.
Starting third on the grid, Dani Pedrosa climbed a position when the red light went off, riding second by the end of the straight behind Valentino Rossi, the rider who clocked up the best time yesterday. His team-mate, Andrea Dovizioso, who started seventh, also managed to overtake a rival over the first few metres, although just a turn later, both had lost a position. Pedrosa was overtaken by Jorge Lorenzo before he finished the first lap, dropping into third, and his team-mate Andrea Dovizioso was back in seventh.
In the following laps, Rossi, Lorenzo and Pedrosa edged away from the pack, which split after Casey Stoner fell in the third lap. At this time, Andrea Dovizioso -who had overtaken Melandri – overtook Hayden and set off in pursuit of his team-mate, who was wheel to wheel with Lorenzo until mid-race, when Lorenzo over took Valentino Rossi and the group was definitively split. As the laps passed, Pedrosa started to lose ground compared to the lead and Dovizioso closed in on him tenth by tenth, with Hayden very alert a second behind the Italian. In the last lap, the battle between the Repsol Honda Team riders reached its most crucial moment. Dovizioso overtook Pedrosa at the start of the last lap and the Spaniard, trying to retake third place, ended up braking too hard, allowing Hayden to overtake him. In the end, third place for Andrea Dovizioso and fifth for Dani Pedrosa.
With this result, the Italian is now third in the overall standings with 42 points and the Spaniard is fourth with 40, both behind Lorenzo, who won today’s race and leads the World Championship, and Rossi.
Dani Pedrosa, 5th at 12,613 sec. >> Audio
“Well of course I’m not satisfied to have finished in this way because we were able to stay near the leaders for the first part of the race and then dropped back. Losing two places on the final lap is not a good feeling. My start was ok and I could stay near the front in the first laps but later in the race I was making a lot of mistakes trying to maintain my pace. I had a bit of a rear brake issue which meant I couldn’t get the bike into the turns as I wanted and I was fighting the bike a bit. Andrea rode well and pushed very hard at the end, so congratulations to him on the podium finish. It’s an important part of the season coming up with many races in a short time, so we must work hard and do better in Mugello”.
Andrea Dovizioso, 3rd at 7.872 sec. >> Audio
“I’m so happy to have made the podium here. It was very important because I wanted to confirm that the result in Qatar was not a one-off. We have improved a lot during the winter, so this is another important step forward. I wanted a good result for the team, to thank them and also because of last year when Dani came from 10 seconds behind to overtake me on the very last lap. Also, I’m very pleased to be going to Mugello third in the championship. It was a tough race. At the beginning I took a lot of risks to recover from starting on the third row. I made up some places and then I was able to match the leaders’ pace in the early stages. Once I caught Dani it was hard to get past and I knew Nicky was very close behind so I had to find a way by. Dani has really good acceleration so it was difficult to make the overtake. I waited for four laps, worked out my strategy and I made my move at on the last lap at the corner I’d planned. This is a good start to the season, we worked a lot during the winter and Honda keeps working hard. We are close to the leaders – though still not close enough because our target is to fight for wins. We’ll go to Mugello with a lot of confidence as this a special race for me”.