Round 16 of the MotoGP World Championship at the Phillip Island circuit proved to be a tough one for Andrea Dovizioso.
The Ducati rider, who started from the fourth row of the grid for the Australian GP, was unable to gain any positions at the start and he crossed the line at the end of the opening lap in eleventh place.
The Italian then braked very late for the first turn and dropped down to twentieth place.
Despite a good recovery, which took him back up to eleventh place, Dovizioso was not able to make up any more places and at the final corner of the last lap he was overtaken by Redding and Pedrosa, finishing his race in thirteenth place.
โToday's race was a big disappointment and we really lost a lot of points in the championship,โ he said. โFor sure my mistake in the early stages of the race complicated things and maybe even the choice of rear tyre was not the best one, but on this track our bike is still struggling a lot.โ
โThis year we've managed to improve many aspects and be competitive throughout the season but when you come to tracks like this, where you don't brake very much and where there are lots of long fast corners, some of our limits are magnified: in fact here at Phillip Island none of the Ducati were very quick.โ
โPity, because at this point of the season it would have been better to be closer to Marquez in the standings, but now we have to think of Malaysia, where quite simply we'll have to give it our all.โ
