It was a good day for our riders during the Dutch race of the MotoGP World Championship at the Assen TT Circuit.
Iannone, who was great, gained a precious 4th place. Cal Crutchlow had a sixth position. On the contrary, Andrea Dovizioso has been unlucky since he had to lose very important positions because of a technical issue. Miller crashed at the first lap.

OUR RIDERS:

Andrea Dovizioso 12th position

Andrea Iannone 4th position

Cal Crutchlow 6th position

Jack Miller -

DUCATI TEAM

Andrea Iannone managed to score another good result in round 8 of the MotoGP World Championship, the classic Dutch TT round held at the Assen circuit. The rider from Abruzzo, who started from sixth place on row 2 of the grid, got off to a good start and was fifth at the end of the opening lap. On lap 3 he passed Pol Espargaro to move into fourth, a position he held until the chequered flag, and he ended the race with a five second gap to his Spanish rival.

Andrea Dovizioso, who started from row 4 after qualifying tenth on the grid, had another unlucky race. The rider from Romagna managed to work his way up to fifth place by lap 11 after passing Smith, Crutchlow and the Espargarò brothers, then held on to that position until lap 14. Unfortunately an unexpected vibration on his GP15, which got worse lap after lap, forced him to slow his pace and as a result Dovizioso had to settle for twelfth overall.

Iannone stays third in the Riders’ standings with 107 points, while Dovizioso drops one place to fifth on 87 points, two behind Marquez.

Ducati lie third in the Constructors’ standings with 132 points, with the Ducati Team still second in the special ranking for teams.

Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team #29) – 4th

“It was a difficult race because when you aim for better results it’s not easy to be satisfied with fourth, even if you score good points. In the race I got off to a good start, unlike in the other rounds, but I was not able to run particularly well in the first three or four laps and I struggled to pass Aleix Espargarò right away, so I lost touch with Jorge, Marc and Vale. My race pace was similar to Jorge’s so I could probably have tried to do a bit more. However we have to be pleased and satisfied because we managed to take home the best possible result today. I believe that we did a good job over the weekend, we ran a constant pace throughout the weekend and again we were able to work out the right direction to follow.”

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 12th

“It’s a real pity what happened today because after not exactly setting the world alight in qualifying, I had succeeded in moving up to fifth place in the race. I was running behind Iannone when a part of the seat, attached to the exhaust, broke. This moved around a lot and caused the front of the bike to vibrate. I had to slow down because I almost crashed many times and this did not allow me to score a good result. Without this setback we could have done a good race even though we were not entirely satisfied with our speed.”

Luigi Dall’Igna (Ducati Corse General Manager)

“Andrea Iannone did a really nice race, getting a good start and keeping up a good pace that enabled him to take the chequered flag in a well-deserved fourth place. Unfortunately a technical issue conditioned Andrea Dovizioso’s race while he was lying in fifth. These things should not happen but we have to look ahead with confidence.”

LCR TEAM

CWM LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow took sixth place in Saturday’s Dutch TT having started from seventh on the grid, having become embroiled in a race-long battle with several of his MotoGP rivals.

The British rider made a solid start in the sunny conditions, but as the leaders pulled away from the pack, Crutchlow was stuck in a dogfight with at least five others, which saw the group chopping and changing positions in virtually every corner, on every single lap. 

Ultimately Crutchlow came home sixth to collect points for the first time in four races, adding 10 to his account for the season, and filling him with confidence before the championship heads to one of his most successful circuits, the Sachsenring in Germany, in two weeks time.

Cal Crutchlow #35 – 6th

“I had three non-finishes after three crashes, a couple which were no fault of my own, so I had to finish the race, but 24 seconds off the lead is not where I want to be. I think we had the pace to be fourth today, but I couldn’t get away from the group because the bikes in a straight line were faster than mine.”

“Andrea Dovizioso passed me down the straight six or seven times, and that messed up my rhythm preventing me from escaping. It was a nice battle though, because we have great respect for each other.”

“Battling with all the other riders was good fun, but I honestly wanted to be further up than I was. That said, I needed to finish the race so sixth is not so bad.”

It was a quick end to Jack Miller’s maiden Dutch TT in the MotoGP World Championship, as the Australian was involved in a melee at the final chicane on the first lap, which saw him crash out of contention.

After a positive weekend of practice, Miller had been disappointed with his qualifying position of 20th place, however he had been confident of making up spots in the race. Sadly, as he tried to make up positions into the last corner, he lost traction and ended up in the gravel.

Miller and the CWM LCR Honda Team will be back in action in two weeks time, at the Sachsenring in Germany. 

Jack Miller #43 - DNF

“I got a really good start and had a small touch with Eugene Laverty off the line, but after that I recovered. Coming into the last corner I tried to pass Bautista but my rear tyre overtook my front tyre and I got a little nudge from someone. It was unfortunate because I felt quite good here all weekend and my pace wasn’t so bad, so to end it like this was a shame.”

“We are working hard every week, and I look forward to getting back to racing at Sachsenring. I’m more disappointed about losing the experience of racing here, we’ve missed out on a lot of laps and we are here to make laps. If we kep working hard I’m sure we can do a great job in Germany next time.”