Ducati’s Andrea Dovizoso dropped 16 points to Marc Marquez in yesterday’s Aragon MotoGP, limping home in seventh as the Spaniard took victory but said the choice of the soft rear tyre was correct.

Dovizoso was in the running until ten laps from the end but setup problems in three corners meant he had to use the rear Michelin up just to stay with the leading pack. Eventually, it gave up and he dropped behind Aleix Espargaro in the finishing order.

“I don’t think we made the wrong decision to use the soft tyre, it dropped a lot the last ten laps but it was a consequence of our speed. We couldn’t ride Friday and we struggle a lot on that, we couldn’t drive for the race with a good speed,” said Dovizioso at the track.

“I was losing in three corners too much behind Valentino, Marc and Jorge, so in the middle of the race when everybody start to push, I have to start to use the rear tyre to stay with them and this is the reason why I finished the tyre.

“The tyre is not the point, we didn’t understand how big was the limit in three corners and we didn’t have time to work on that. I was trying, I did a great start, I was in a good position but when the tyre drop I couldn’t keep for ten laps with the pace and I lose a lot of position.”