Andrea Dovizioso lost the joint lead in the MotoGP standings after finishing a difficult Aragon race seventh, but does not regret opting for the soft rear tyre despite his woes.
Dovizioso – as well as Ducati team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, who finished third – went with the soft option rear, while the factory Yamahas and Hondas opted for the hard.
The Italian was able to use the early grip advantage he had to jump from seventh to third, but steadily his challenge faded, and by the end he was struggling to defend seventh from Aspar Ducati‘s Alvaro Bautista.
Slipping 16 points adrift of race winner Marc Marquez in the standings, Dovizioso thinks he still made the right call with tyre choice, and blames his drop in grip on a lack of dry track time to properly set up his bike on Friday.
“It was a complicated weekend and my race was a tough one,” admits Dovizioso, who predicted Aragon to be a circuit not best suited to him on Thursday.
“At the start I tried to stay with the leading group, but unfortunately I didn’t have many cards to play.
“For sure, not being able to do many laps on Friday complicated the situation because we knew this wasn’t an easy track for us and that we needed more time to work.
“I don’t think that opting for the soft rear tyre was a mistake, and the drop in performance towards the end of the race in my opinion was due to other factors, seeings as I was losing a lot in some parts of the track.
“(It’s a) pity about my seventh place but, given the conditions, it was the best I could do today.”
Vinales: Hard tyre was wrong choice
Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales also endured a difficult race after he opted for the harder rear, a decision he quickly regreted but one he felt forced into.
The Spaniard could find no grip on the medium tyre during practice, and was unable to set his bike up to manage the soft rear due to a lack of dry running on Friday.
Vinales struggled for pace in the early laps, and was two seconds adrift of the podium battle after just four laps as a scrabbled for grip under acceleration.
Finding pace later in the race, Vinales just beat team-mate Rossi to fourth, but admits fighting for the championship will be difficult if Yamaha cannot fix its traction issues in hotter conditions.
“I was lucky that I could manage the tyres until the end, and it was lucky that some other riders also had a bit of tyre drop at the end,” said Vinales, who now sits 28 points off of the championship lead in third.
“For the championship, it will now be really difficult because we have to improve the bike.
“In the traction area we are losing a lot, but the front of the bike is working really well. We need to improve the rear.
“For sure, losing Friday hurt us because if we had practiced on Friday, for sure I would have known not to use the harder tyre and I’d have used the soft.
“I’d have been able to work on the bike and make the soft tyre last longer.”
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