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270bhp+soft tyre=MotoGP race win. How did Ducati do that?

Today’s MotoGP race was as much about tyres as it was about riders and bikes. Winner Andrea Dovizoso opted for the soft rear while Marc Marquez was at the polar opposite, employing the hard Michelin which in anyone’s book should have been a better bet as the race progressed but try as he might - and he tried – Dovizoso and the Desmosedici were better on the day.

Dovizioso’s rear resembled chewing gum in parc ferme but he had fought hard, taken every opportunity and played it smart with the package he was given. And 270bhp through a soft rear tyre made the difference. How do they do it?

“I knew very well my strong points, where I was struggling and I tried to take advantage of every situation. I remained calm and responded to every single attack coming from Marc Marquez,” said Dovizioso after the race. But the tyre choice was critical with the factory Ducati riders changing to soft on the grid.

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“The Michelin tyres have to be interpreted in a different way,” said the 31-year-old Italian. “There is no more a soft or hard option. Each tyre has three or four different compounds in it so we need to analyze all the details, the temperatures and follow new paths. In qualifying we were not afraid of using the medium compounds instead of the soft and in the race we chose the soft , although our direct competitors went for a harder options.

“Myself and Marc saved the tyres for the first half of the race. This was crucial to be able to push hard in the end. Saving tyres meant also saving fuel so we had no consumption problems.”

According to team manager Davide Tardozzi, the Desmosedici has been developed around the soft tyre whereas Honda’s RC213V is made for the harder rear.

“As Honda has worked to make the RC213V work well with the hard tyres, we have developed the Desmosedici to work well with the soft. This is part of our philosophy,” reveals Tardozzi. “Because if you succeed to make the bike work well with soft tyre, the bike can count on more grip. So we focused on the electronics and also on the rear shocks, swing arm and link.”

“Our bike is very competitive and works most of the time well with the tyres. This is also a strong point,” commented Dovizioso. “Then if we want to fight for the title, we need to improve still a bit.

“We were losing a lot in the two left corners and I knew that Marc would have tried to attack in the last lap. In the penultimate corner I closed the door, but he exited well and he was able to prepare the last corner well. He was so close that I heard it. There was no space to pass, but I knew that he would try. So I didn’t close the door, otherwise we could have gone wide or crash but I had a bit more and made it.”

In 2016, with the help of wings, Ducati dominated the race but without them, it was always going to be more difficult, believes Gigi Dall’Igna.

“Last year we knew we had a margin, but this year the situation was different. We have lost the advantage of the wings but the GP17 is a more balanced bike compared to last year. They banned the wings for a safety reason. We never agreed, the bike is more dangerous without the wings. Being Italian, we didn’t give up, we used intellect, the fantasy and the creativity and we incorporated them into the fairing. As Italians and as a small company we succeed and solve the things faster and we came up with an innovative idea.”

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