Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso admits a strategy of deliberately dropping time in two corners during MotoGP’s German Grand Prix in order to save his tyres did not pay off.
Dovizioso was seventh after the start of the Sachsenring race and never ran higher than fifth.
Having predicted saving the rear tyre would be crucial to his hopes after qualifying, the Italian said he was trying to conserve his rubber in two fast corners.
However, as the race entered its latter stages, fatigue – caused by trying to make up the time lost elsewhere around the track – took its toll and he had to settle for seventh.
“I was too slow in two corners, because we decided to not use the power to save the tyres,” Dovizioso explained.
“I thought it’s positive for us, we [could] save more the tyre than our competitors, because everybody would spin [their rear tyre] more than me – and maybe at the end I have more tyre [life].
“But the reality was that I had to use too much energy to gain in some other points to stay on the same pace as the first group.
“I thought it was the right strategy, but in the end I lose energy and I couldn’t ride the bike in a perfect way. At the end I couldn’t stay with the same intensity and I lost more.
“If you are not in the perfect position on the bike and you have to manage a very low [amount of] grip, front and rear, it’s difficult. But it’s the consequence, it’s not the problem.”
Dovizioso expected more than seventh and, having ended up as the fourth-best Ducati behind Danilo Petrucci, Alvaro Bautista and Jorge Lorenzo, he feels he had a chance to have a better result.
“I expected more, because you have to expect more,” he lamented. “But at the Sachsenring it’s impossible to know before the race what you can do.
“We were trying to save the tyre and I was losing a lot. I was able to stay with them, I thought it was the right strategy, but in the end I lost energy and I couldn’t ride the bike in a perfect way.
“At the end when you are not able to ride the bike in a right way, you lose more than what you can lose from the drop of the tyre.”
Additional reporting by Jamie Klein
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