The Australian Grand Prix was very short for Andrea Dovizioso who, after two difficult practice days, was making significant progress in today’s race. The Repsol rider started ninth and reached fifth, but in the third lap, he started having problems with the steering damper, which forced him to head back to the garage without being able to continue.
Dovizioso did not get off to a good start and at the end of the straight he was being passed by two rivals but, taking the inside line, between the first and second turn he managed to recover positions and overtake another three riders. Just a few turns later, the Italian Repsol Honda Team rider was in front of Ben Spies and finished the first lap in fifth.
After Casey Stoner had broken away in the opening moments, the Repsol rider was riding in chasing group when, in lap three, he had his first scare taking one of the long turns on Phillip Island, in which he was passed by Spies and Rossi, who did not hesitate to take advantage of Andrea’s incident to climb positions.
A few metres later, he was again unable to take one of the fast turns on the Australian track well and dropped to last after a big scare. The Italian Repsol Honda Team rider tried to continue but saw it was too dangerous to try to up his pace again with this problem with his bike and finally opted to head back to the garage. The team is currently analysing the precise causes of the problem with the steering damper that ruined Dovizioso’s race.
While the Australian Grand Prix has come to a close in Phillip Island, Dani Pedrosa is already back in Barcelona, where he plans to visit the doctors who operated on him to take the stitches out of his left collarbone. Then, he will set off for Switzerland to continue with his rehabilitation, with his sights now set on the Portuguese Grand Prix and on defending his second place in the MotoGP overall standings.
Andrea Dovizioso, withdrew >> Audio
“It’s really a pity that I had to retire today because we had worked hard with team and, after two difficult days of practice, today we had the pace to fight for third position and a podium finish. I made a good start and I was able to recover some positions. On the first lap I did a 1m31.7s without pushing too hard and I was fifth across the line. In the first two laps though I felt the steering was stiff and on lap three this caused me to lose a lot of positions. I could control the bike but, although I completed another lap, it was too risky to keep riding and I had to come into the pits. There was a problem at the steering damper mounting – it had moved into an incorrect position, so now we will investigate the causes. I’m really disappointed because after two great races in Japan and Malaysia, it was important to make a good race here to fight for third position in the championship. Still, now we will look to get the best results possible in Estoril and Valencia”.
