Great race of Andrea Dovizioso at Silverstone, Great Britain. In a rainy day, he obtained a wonderful third position and gained the podium, which was an Italian one, after Rossi and Petrucci. Iannone closed with the 8th place; both LCR Honda riders, instead, slid out after a mistake of Jack Miller.

OUR RIDERS:

Andrea Dovizioso 3th position

Andrea Iannone 8th position

Cal Crutchlow -

Jack Miller -

DUCATI TEAM

Andrea Dovizioso produced a great race for the Ducati Team in the British GP today at Silverstone to claim the final podium place in third. The Italian rider had a terrific scrap with his compatriot Danilo Petrucci, who finished runner-up in second with the Pramac Racing Team’s Desmosedici GP. His teammate Andrea Iannone found things a bit more difficult in the wet conditions and could only finish eighth. The twelfth round of the season took place in heavy rain, which began to fall a few minutes before the start, forcing the Race Direction to begin a second starting procedure.
Dovizioso was unable to get good traction off the grid at the start and he finished the opening lap in eleventh place. The man from Forlì then began a splendid recovery through the field and, after passing Smith on lap 4, he latched onto the exhausts of Danilo Petrucci, who was very quick in the wet conditions. The two Ducati riders moved up to third and fourth, and after Marquez crashed out, they began a terrific scrap for the runner-up slot, swapping positions on numerous occasions. On lap 14 of 20 Dovizioso was forced to leave second place to Petrucci and then in the final laps had to keep Lorenzo at bay, so he concluded the British GP with his fifth podium finish of the year.
Thanks to today’s result Dovizioso is now back in fifth position in the overall standings with 120 points, ahead of Smith. Andrea Iannone did not get off to a good start either and he crossed the line at the end of lap 1 in tenth place. The rider from Abruzzo then tried to impose a regular pace on his race, and after several retirements, he finished the British GP in eighth place. Iannone holds on to fourth overall in the championship standings, cutting the gap to Marquez to just nine points. Ducati are still third overall in the Constructors’ standings, while the Ducati Team have now moved into second place in the special classification reserved for Teams.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 3rd
“I am really pleased with this third place and I want to say thanks to my team, because we are working so hard to try and get back to being competitive once again. Today was not an easy day for many reasons: we started from the fourth row of the grid and I almost crashed at the start because the rear tyre suddenly lost grip and I found myself at the back of the field. Despite this I succeeded in making a good recovery, even getting up into second place. It was a really tough race, and Petrucci and I had a great battle, so I’m also happy for his excellent result. In the final stages we were taking too many risks when we were passing and repassing each other, and seeing as it was important for us to get back onto the podium, in the end I concentrated on holding onto my third place.”

Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team #29) – 8th
“It was not such a positive weekend from the point of view of the final result, but at least in the standings I was able to get closer to third place. We encountered a bit of difficulty throughout the three days and my bike was not easy to manage due to the bumps on the track, which created a lot of problems for us. In the race I struggled in particular with the rear when turning into the curves and above all at the start I was very slow. Then, as the laps went by, I reduced the amount of engine braking and the situation improved a lot, but I was never able to find the consistency that I would have liked.”

Luigi Dall’Igna (Ducati Corse General Manager)
“In the end we obtained a good result here at Silverstone. Dovizioso finally returned to the podium, Iannone reduced the gap in the standings to Marquez and Petrucci did a really great race. Today we also repeated our best result of the season, with two Ducati riders on the podium, and so for sure we can say that it was a positive weekend. From a technical point of view, I have to say that we had a few too many problems during the qualifying session that I honestly didn’t expect. In dry conditions, we were quite far away from Marquez and Lorenzo, but in my opinion the race pace of our two riders would have allowed us to do quite well even in those conditions. Now we move on to our second ‘home race’ at Misano, which comes after these good results, and where we hope to give some more satisfaction to our fans.”

LCR TEAM

Cal Crutchlow saw his hopes of challenging for victory at the British Grand Prix snatched away after a hugely encouraging opening to Sunday’s race at Silverstone. Having qualified eighth on the grid, the LCR Honda rider got away well in damp conditions and had effortlessly moved up into the podium positions by lap three. However, finally poised to make a bid for success on a track that has never previously proved a happy hunting ground, the 29-year-old was taken out by charging team-mate Jack Miller who was late on the brakes going into a corner. Having crashed out, Crutchlow subsequently attempted to rejoin but was forced to admit defeat shortly afterwards, meaning a frustrating end to his weekend.

Cal Crutchlow #35 (DNF)
“Obviously I’m really disappointed, we could have done a great race today, I thought I had the pace to be with the winner. I felt really comfortable this morning in the rain and I felt really comfortable in the race, but these things happen. Jack is young, he was near to the front in a MotoGP race and made an ambitious move. He made a mistake, he apologised and I have accepted his apology. I’ve done it before and I’m sure I will do it again - this is racing, but obviously I was very disappointed. I came in and we changed the bike, but as soon as I went out of the pitlane I crashed immediately because it was a dry setting on that bike and there is a big, big difference. I was not really going to carry on too much as I was too far behind the leader at that point, but it was a good job by the LCR Honda team this weekend and I really appreciate all the fan support as they really helped us.”

The British Grand Prix ended in disappointing style for Jack Miller as he crashed out after making a superb start to the race at Silverstone. Having departed the grid in 16th position, the LCR Honda rider stormed through the field to be sitting in fourth spot on lap three. However, after attempting a late braking manoeuvre heading into a corner, the flying Australian succeeded only in taking out his own team-mate Cal Crutchlow leading both riders to slide out. Miller was unable to rejoin meaning a frustrating end to what had been a promising weekend’s work, although he remained keen to take the positives.

Jack Miller #43 (DNF)
“I’m happy with the weekend, but of course not happy with the result of the race. I want to say a big sorry to Cal for taking him out, but we were both pushing hard. I didn’t actually mean to overtake him, I was just trying to hold Espargaro off on the brakes and accidently went too deep and touched him. It was an accident, but all in all it was a good weekend as we found some settings with the bike we became more comfortable with and I’m looking forward to Misano. Misano is a good track for me, I like it a lot. It will be a new surface this year so I look forward to seeing what the grip level is like as last year was quite low, but it should be interesting.”