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Tag: Andrea Dovizioso

  • Marquez Completes Perfect Weekend in Austin

    Marquez Completes Perfect Weekend in Austin

    Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez dominated Sunday’s Grand Prix of the Americas, building a big gap between himself and the field early and winning the race by six seconds.

    The 23-year-old Spaniard has won all four MotoGP races at Circuit of the Americas since it’s inaugural season (and his rookie season) in 2013.

    COTA is the only North American track on the schedule after Indianapolis Motor Speedway was removed following last season. At Indy, Marquez claimed wins in three of his four premier class visits.

    Leading up to Sunday’s race, Marquez topped the charts in all four free practice sessions and qualifying. All of his wins at COTA come from pole position starts.

    In the three races this season, Marquez has claimed victories in the last two and placed third in the season opener at Qatar, launching him to a 21 point lead in the championship over Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo. His comfortable lead is due in part to being the only factory Honda, Yamaha or Ducati rider not to have crashed out of any of the three races thus far this season.

    His easy win may have been partly influenced by an early Valentino Rossi low side, followed by a hard wreck between Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa and Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso.

    Lorenzo appeared to be the only rider with anything for Marquez, but even his clean race couldn’t put him in contention for the win. The Movistar Yamaha rider may have elected to accept the second position and avoid pushing his bike too hard after crashing out of last weekend’s grand prix in Argentina.

    Ducati’s Andrea Iannone finished third, eleven seconds behind Marquez, with a comfortable seven-second gap to fourth place finisher Maverick Vinales. Iannone also improved heavily on crashes in the first two races, particularly last week’s final turn slide that took himself and Ducati teammate Dovizioso out of the race. Worth noting is that Dovizioso’s crash this week was due to competitor error as well.

    Fifth went to Suzuki Ecstar’s Aleix Espargaro, who engaged in close action with teammate Vinales from Lap 6 to the checkered flag.

    The series heads to Jerez, Spain in a few weeks, yet it goes without saying that Marquez would like an extended Western Hemisphere swing in the schedule.

  • Ducati Among The Best At Sepang

    Ducati Among The Best At Sepang

    Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso chose not to wait for Ducati Team’s 2015 bike debut to clock fast times this week, securing a position in the top four time slots each day in Malaysia.

    At this week’s Sepang test, Ducati focused primarily on gathering data for the forthcoming Desmosedici GP15, but in the meantime managed to record multiple lap times that placed it consistently among MotoGP’s top teams. Iannone’s day three time of 1:59.006 was enough to give him the third spot overall, proving that his transition from Pramac Ducati to the factory team is going smoothly if not excellently.

    “There has been a lot of work over the last three days, and I’m also happy with my new team: the guys have done a great job,” Iannone said. “Now I’m really anxious to try the new GP15 at Sepang 2, but in any case I’m happy with the way we have improved in the last few months.”

    Iannone took full advantage of the cool and dry day three, shaving over two seconds off his day one time. His final time was .526 seconds off Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez at the top of the charts.

    With a time of 1:59.874, Dovizioso placed seventh on the final time sheets, overshadowing his impressive fourth and second fastest times on days one and two, respectively.

    “I like Sepang a lot: I always manage to go well here and our speed is really good compared to that of our rivals,” Dovizioso said on day two after recording the second fastest time.

    Aboard the Desmosedici GP14.3, an evolution of the GP14.2 that debuted last season, Dovizioso and Iannone concentrated on chassis and electronics setups. The GP15 was originally set to arrive in time for the first test, but it was recently announced that it will debut at Sepang 2 later this month.

    “I am still using last year’s bike, with several important updates, but I’m really curious to try the new bike at the end of the month,” Dovizioso said. “The GP15 will be quite different from this one, but all the work we are doing is useful feedback for the new bike, and so the work in these three days is very important.”

    If the Desmosedici GP15 shows any marginal improvement upon the current lab bike, the Repsol Honda and Movistar Yamaha teams will have to seriously consider another duo of factory competitors in Ducati Team this season.

    Of the riders recording the five best final times, Iannone was the only rider not to finish in the top four in the championship in both of the last two MotoGP seasons. Aboard the Pramac Ducati in 2013 and 2014, Iannone finished 12th and 10th, respectively, in the points.

    MotoGP testing will continue at Sepang later this month, then at Losail in March before the start of the 2015 season at Losail.

  • Grand Prix of Japan Faces a Tough Task In Following Aragon Race

    Grand Prix of Japan Faces a Tough Task In Following Aragon Race

    The Gran Premio Movistar de Aragon was a chaotic and entertaining 800th premier class Grand Prix. While fans weren’t treated to a close race for the win at the line, it certainly wasn’t a one-bike runaway decided before the halfway point. Actually, somewhere in the middle of all the action was a short-lived, but intense, race for the lead between the two Repsol Honda riders.

    Equally as chaotic as the race was any effort to keep up with the several storylines unfolding as the race progressed. Jorge Lorenzo capturing his first win of the season at his home track was the statistically important event of the day.

    More intriguing was the top three riders in the points standings experiencing wrecks in their limit-pushing decisions to race on slick tires in wet conditions (exception: Rossi, who wrecked before rain arrived).

    Possibly even more intriguing were the two Brits and a German finishing in the top five, taking the spots typically occupied by Spanish and Italian riders.  

    But the most intriguing narrative to come out of Aragon was the Ducati 14.2 situation. While the other events I mentioned were byproducts of risky racing in the rain, isolated incidents that ended at the Aragon race, the Ducati story will still be creating a buzz when the Japan race starts. The Italian manufacturer’s first fielding of a new, heavily modified bike ended in both riders, Iannone and Dovizioso, crashing at Aragon. To some degree, the Ducati riders showed promise, which might come off as strange considering both of their Ducati 14.2 efforts ended in wrecks, but further analysis suggests otherwise.

    Andrea Iannone qualified on the front row and started the race strong. He pulled out to an early lead and effectively defended it through the first lap. What’s more, he engaged in tight racing with Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, and put up a fight that we wouldn’t have expected earlier this season. Hopefully Japan offers dry conditions and we’ll see what Iannone can do on this bike in a long run, because his early departure from the Aragon race left me wondering what could have been.

    Dovizioso wrecked in qualifying, which undoubtedly put a damper on any momentum he could have built for the weekend, so when he also crashed out of the race, it wasn’t as unpleasant of a shock as watching Iannone’s day end. But Dovizioso, too, may have had more to offer than the results suggest. He was confident that he could have competed in the end.

    “I even think I could have fought it out for the win with [Lorenzo], seeing the way things turned out,” Dovizioso said. “It was a situation we should have taken advantage of because a lot of riders made mistakes. Luckily I only bruised my buttock, not my pelvis, it hurts a bit but it’s nothing serious.”

    The future Ducati Team mates are able to race and on the climb, and if they can harness the advantages of their new bikes, they can raise eyebrows in Japan and the three following races before heading into the offseason.

  • Pedrosa Thwarts Marquez Record Attempt at Czech Grand Prix

    Pedrosa Thwarts Marquez Record Attempt at Czech Grand Prix

    Dani Pedrosa won the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic on Sunday, preventing his Repsol Honda teammate Marc Marquez from breaking the all-time record for consecutive wins to start a season.

    Last week at The Grand Prix of the Americas in Indianapolis, Marquez tied Giacomo Agostini’s 1971 record of 10 wins to open a season, but his fourth place finish at Brno left him one short of being the lone possessor of the record. It also came as his first premier class event without a podium finish. Marquez finished ten seconds behind Pedrosa.

    Pedrosa’s win on the 3.3-mile circuit came as his first grand prix win since Sepang of 2013 and his 26th premier class grand prix win aboard the No. 26 Repsol Honda.

    Marquez started from the pole, but dropped back to sixth at the start. Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso and Pramac Racing’s Andrea Iannone led early, until Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo passed both for the lead in one corner.

    Marquez dropped to sixth place early, but chipped away at positions up to third, passing Dovizioso, Valentino Rossi and Iannone, respectively, in the opening laps.

    On Lap five, Iannone and Marquez swapped positions multiple times, including two instances of contact between the riders on consecutive corners, ending in Marquez holding the spot.

    While fans have grown accustomed to watching Marquez either dominate early or cut intervals until gaining the lead this season, it grew apparent well before the halfway point of the race that he was consistently losing the leader’s time.

    On Lap 6, Pedrosa passed Lorenzo for the lead, and built a safe lead of about 1.5 seconds, which he maintained for much of the remainder of the race. Lorenzo’s soft compound front tire may have contributed to his falling off the lead as the track warmed.

    With 10 laps to go, Movistar Yamaha’s Rossi made his move under Marquez, and the podium would hold that order at the end of the race, with Marquez left on the outside looking in from fourth place.

    While Pedrosa held a safe lead through the closing laps, on the final lap Lorenzo gained ground on the Honda rider, cutting the lead to a half-second, but never posed a threat to pass.

    Marquez still maintains a command of the standings, with a 77 point lead.

    Rossi made his 245th premier class race appearance, tying Alex Barros for the all-time record.

    It was the first grand prix since 2002 with no American riders, as Nicky Hayden is still out with an injury and Colin Edwards is retiring.

    Results:

    1. Dani Pedrosa

    2. Jorge Lorenzo

    3. Valentino Rossi

    4. Marc Marquez

    5. Andrea Iannone

    6. Andrea Dovizioso

    7. Stefan Bradl

    8. Aleix Espargaro

    9. Bradley Smith

    10.Alvaro Bautista

    11. Scott Redding

    12. Michele Pirro

    13. Hiroshi Aoyama

    14. Karel Abraham

    15. Leon Camier

    16. Aleix DeAngelis

    17. Hector Barbera

    18. Mike Di Meglio

    19. Broc Parkes

    DNF- Danilo Petrucci

    DNF- Cal Crutchlow

    DNF- Pol Espargaro

    DNF- Michael Laverty

    DNF- Yonny Hernandez

  • Marquez Stretches Perfect Season Win Streak to Eight

    Marquez Stretches Perfect Season Win Streak to Eight

    Marc Marquez captured his eighth consecutive win at the Dutch Grand Prix in Assen, Holland on Saturday.

    The 21-year-old rider’s latest win in his currently perfect season increases his points lead over second place Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa to 72 points. Marquez became the first rider to win the first eight premier-class races of the season since Giacomo Agostini in 1971.

    Round Eight of the MotoGP World Championship was declared a wet race before the start, and most riders elected to run wet tires on the 4.542-mile TT Assen Circuit.

    Marquez grabbed the early lead and swapped it with Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso a few times in Lap 1 before putting a half-second lead on Dovizioso in the next few laps.

    By Lap 4, Marquez had established a five second cushion between himself and third place Aleix Espargaro. First-time polesitter Espargaro spent the duration of the day battling with Pedrosa for the third spot.

    As the track began to dry, most riders came in on Lap 5 to switch to slicks.  Marquez led Dovizioso out of the pits and re-entered the track in second, behind Drive M7 Aspar rider Hiroshi Aoyama, who avoided the pit delay due to starting the race on slicks.

    Shortly after coming out of the pits, with the track still slightly wet, Marquez slipped in a corner and ran well off the track, and was overtaken by Dovizioso.

    By Lap 7, Dovizioso and Marquez had tracked down and passed Aoyama, establishing a two-bike race. Dovizioso held a four second lead over Marquez, while behind them Pedrosa took the third spot from Espargaro.

    Over the coming laps, Marquez reeled in Dovizioso, cutting the lead to three seconds by Lap 12, and down to one second by Lap 13.

    Crossing the line on Lap 15, Marquez blew by Dovizioso. Espargaro and Pedrosa continued  their battle for third, ten seconds off the lead.

    Dovizioso temporarily regained the lead, but Marquez quickly took it back on a pass in the chicane. Marquez, who was clearly faster than Dovizioso, pulled away in the coming laps.

    Once Marquez increased his gap to second, the rain clouds overhead became his only formidable adversary. His celebratory final lap was accompanied by rays of sun cutting through the clouds for the first time during the race. He won the race by 6.7 seconds.

    Pedrosa won his race-long battle with Espargaro for the final podium spot. Espargaro finished fourth.

    Valentino Rossi made a notable performance, steadily climbing the leaderboard up to fifth after starting the race from pit lane due to a late decision to run wet tires.

    Race Results:

    1. Marc Marquez

    2. Andrea Dovizioso

    3. Dani Pedrosa

    4. Aleix Espargaro

    5. Valentino Rossi

    6. Andrea Iannone

    7. Alvaro Bautista

    8. Bradley Smith

    9. Cal Crutchlow

    10. Stefan Bradl

    11. Broc Parkes

    12. Scott Redding

    13. Jorge Lorenzo

    14. Karel Abraham

    15. Danilo Petrucci

    16. Hiroshi Aoyama

    17. Nicky Hayden

    18. Hector Barbera

    19. Yonny Hernandez

    20. Mike Di Meglio

    21. Michael Laverty

    22. Colin Edwards