Andrea Dovizioso says his “perfect start” in the Americas Grand Prix allowed him to recover from his “big problem” of 13th on the grid to reclaim the MotoGP points lead.
Dovizioso fell out of qualifying when Ducati team-mate Danilo Petrucci beat him in Q1 by 0.016s, and forced him to start from his lowest grid position since the 2017 Spanish Grand Prix.
After enacting the “exact strategy I had in my mind” and recovering to seventh off the line, he went onto finish just a second from the podium in fourth and take a three-point lead in the standings.
He admits a wet patch at Turn 10 robbed him of “confidence” early on and meant he was “so slow in the fast corners”, which ultimately stopped him from usurping fellow Ducati runner Jack Miller on the Pramac GP19.
“I’m happy because to start P13 was a big problem,” Dovizioso said on Sunday.
“But I did a perfect start, I did the exact strategy that I had in my mind, and I put myself in a perfect position.
“Unfortunately I didn’t have the speed at the beginning to stay with the first group and that is the bad part.
“I lose the confidence, I almost crashed at Turn 10, but I realised there was a wet patch in the middle of the track.
“I think that wet patch came out from under the asphalt, where they laid the new asphalt. When I realise that, I changed the line and my bike worked a bit better.
“I was so slow in the fast corners, that’s why I didn’t keep that speed, and that’s why I didn’t have the ability to get the podium unfortunately.”
Dovizioso admits his fourth is “really important”, after former points leader Marc Marquez and his Honda stablemate Cal Crutchlow both crashed out.
He also notes he heads to the Spanish Grand Prix leading the championship not because the field is “very close”, but that his “feeling” on the Ducati is better than it was last year.
“We have to be happy about the fourth,” he added.
“Marc and Cal lost a lot of points, and that for the championship is really important.
“And I’m happy to be going to Jerez like this. I’m first in the championship, but not for that because we are very close; it’s more about the feeling I have with the bike.
“I think apart from the 13th position on the grid, we show a better speed from last year, and I think in Jerez we can be competitive.
“The negative part is there are more competitive riders compared to last year. Apart from Marc, [Alex] Rins and Valentino [Rossi] are really strong and they can really fight for the championship.”
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