Andrea Dovizioso says Marc Marquez “did something special” to keep pace with the Italian rider until the closing stages of the MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix, and praised Marquez's “special year”.
Dovizioso led the field from pole for much of the 24-lap race, responding to a constant threat from the chasing Marquez, and keeping the Honda rider in his grasp when trailing him in the closing laps.
A crash at Turn 10 on the penultimate lap ended Dovizioso's hopes of back-to-back Motegi wins, while also allowing Marquez to secure his fifth MotoGP title having only needed to outscore the Italian.
Dovizioso says the race unfolded as “expected” and concedes Marquez did “something special”, though feels he and Ducati are just as “strong” as the new five-time world champion.
“The race was like we expected, because in the practice I saw really good pace from Marc, like I tried to explain in every interview,” he said.
“But today I think he did something special to stay with me until the last seven laps. So we can just congratulate him, the team, because they did another special year.
“They won and this is normal because they something better than everybody, more than 100 points than anybody.
“I think we are strong like him, but in the end he won the title.”
Explaining why he crashed, Dovizioso says he was not “over the limit”, and that the fall was the result of him trying to “prepare the exit” of Turn 10 “in a better way".
“The positive thing is I wasn't over the limit when I crashed,” explained Dovizioso.
“I just made a small mistake because I wanted to prepare the exit in a better way than the lap before.
“I was accelerating really good, but I couldn't exit close to Marc and try to overtake him in the braking area.
“I did a lap and a half like this, and I wanted to do this immediately and I did a small mistake. I had a lot of angle when I prepared the corner and it was too early.
“I asked too much of the front tyre. That was the bad thing of today."
When asked about Dovizioso's demise, Marquez admits his delight at knowing he was world champion did change somewhat as he felt the Italian "deserved" to be on the podium after such an "incredible season".
“When I saw Dovi out on the last lap, first thought I was very happy because I won the title, but then when I finish I was disappointed because he deserved to be here too. He did an incredible season and an incredible race," the world champion said.
