MotoGP – Le Mans Race – Excellent podium for Andrea Dovizioso

Andrea Dovizioso returns to the MotoGP podium and does so by beating his teammate Dani Pedrosa (who later finished fifth) and Nicky Hayden on the Le Mans circuit. The Forlì rider from Team Honda Repsol, who had already reached the podium in Losail, with these 16 points achieved today also takes him back to third position in the world rankings. He has the microphone.

“I'm very happy to have made the podium here. It was very important because I wanted to confirm that the result in Qatar was not a one-off. We have improved a lot over the winter, so this is another important step forward. I wanted a good result for the team, to thank them and also because of last year, when Pedrosa recovered 10 seconds from me, overtaking me on the last lap. Furthermore, I am very happy to be in third place in the championship ahead of Mugello. It was a tough race. At the beginning I took a lot of risks to recover from starting on the third row. I made a few overtakes and then was able to match the leaders' pace in the early stages. Once I caught Dani (Pedrosa) it was difficult to overtake and I knew Nicky (Hayden) was very close behind so I had to find a way to pass. Dani has really good acceleration so it was difficult to overtake. I waited for four laps, worked out my strategy and made my move on the last lap as I had planned. This is a good start to the season, we worked a lot over the winter and Honda continues to work hard. We are close to the leaders although not yet close enough because our goal is to fight for victory. We will go to Mugello with a lot of confidence, that is a special race for me."