We expected Ducati to do well in Austria and they did; Andrea Dovizioso won in a last-lap, last-corner showdown with Marc Marquez to take his third hard-earned victory of the season. Further, Dovi's teammate Jorge Lorenzo got his normal rocket start and led 11 laps before his tire stepped down. Champagne was seemingly on ice in Bologna...
Why the expectation? Because last year, Dovi finished second to then-Ducati teammate Andrea Iannone, and Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi (then both on Yamaha) were third and fourth, followed by Marquez. Everyone thought Dovi would be the golden child to take Ducati's first victory since Casey Stoner in 2010, not the unpredictable Iannone.
On lap 12 this year, Lorenzo’s soft rear tire let Marquez past until lap 17, when Dovi and Marquez vied for the lead. Dovi then asserted himself and led to the exciting finish.
Dovi said, "It was a very stressful last lap because it’s difficult to manage some riders behind you, especially if it is Marc. He always tries something! The corner before last I braked very, very late and it (the pass) was too difficult for him. But I could hear his engine and he could open the throttle before me on the exit.
“Then I knew he would try at the last turn, so I left the door open because if I closed the door he would hit me and then he would win.”
Marquez came in hot, got sideways, and in recovering ran wide, allowing Dovi to make a classic cross-over under him and accelerate to be first to the flag.
Marquez said, “I arrive on the limit and I try on the last corner, because if not I cannot go to sleep quiet (tonight). I have to try. I tried to manage well but on the last laps I was struggling a lot, especially on the edge part, just leaning the bike a little bit and losing the rear. Anyway I try.”
Last year here Marquez was fifth. A look at the track map shows why the Ducatis are fast here and the Hondas—last year and up to now lacking in acceleration—were not. There are two big straights and two somewhat shorter ones, connected by small corners that are mostly close to right-angle. Acceleration and top speed! The Ducatis have plenty of power for that, and the "pointed" riding style that works best for Ducatis works well on those small corners. In the folded "inner part" of the course are two long left-handers that favor the corner-speed style of the Yamahas (and, incidentally, it was those two lefts that made the hard rear tire difficult; the left side was the cold side, and a cold, hard tire works poorly).
So where did the Hondas come from on Sunday—Marquez and Pedrosa second and third behind Dovizioso? Remember Marquez saying, over the past two years, that he believes the power is there but that somehow, filtered and ‘adjusted’ through the traction control and anti-wheelie systems, much less was getting through?
LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow said, “Marc’s been the king of it this weekend (acceleration). Honestly, how he’s improved since being here last year, in acceleration. He’s riding fantastic in that area. Really, really well. Getting the bike stopped, turned, and getting it out. Normally that’s Dani’s strong point—and he’s murdering Dani.”
Marquez himself said, “Looks like this year I am feeling better with the bike, better acceleration. Of course I’m losing in other points and I’m struggling a little bit but also I tried to adapt my riding style to the bike.”
Dani Pedrosa, third in the race, said, “I had a good strategy, not fast in the beginning but with no mistakes so I could keep the right line and make some passes. I was struggling all weekend with the front locking and with rear spin. Then these two (Dovi and Marquez) started to fight I was closer and closer (remember—cut and thrust costs the duelists time!), but I had no drive to stay in touch after that.”
Through most of practice, times were very close, but as Sunday drew close the fast people pulled away from those with emerging handling issues—mostly the Yamahas. Maverick Vinales (who would finish sixth) was optimistic on Friday but as is his way, despondency enfolded him as lack of rear grip appeared.
On Friday it was, “Today we did a really good job. I was feeling quite good on the bike.” After qualifying fourth he said, “We need to improve on acceleration in the first and second sectors.”
Then after the race it was, “I suffered from a big drop in grip of the rear tire for almost the entire race. When I went wide as I was fighting with Valentino, I just tried to calm down and make the tire last until the end but it was totally impossible.”
Teammate Rossi (who qualified and finished seventh) said, “I was slow. We have to work because we stress too much the rear tire. Especially Honda and Ducati find something to be fast without using the rear too much. But after, we have to slow down and we lose the fight. In the second half of the race we are not strong enough.”
This is an issue that always confronts the corner-speed riders—that the corner speed style is fast until the tire drops, after which it is faster to ride “in the pointed way” of the stop-and-go men, who are less dependent upon extreme edge grip. This has been complicated this year by what seems to be a tricky response of Michelin rubber to temperature. And that word “temperature” means not only the heat of the day but also the work that is required of the tire by the rider.
Here is what Dovi had to say about that; “I had to manage the tire. I couldn’t push at the beginning, so me and Marc saved a lot the tire. When you save the tire you save also the fuel. So I didn’t have any limit and I didn’t change any maps during the race. Every weekend the tire works in a different way. Every team has to understand and analyze every detail.
“It is very difficult because five, six, seven degrees’ difference can make a big difference—like today.” Although he qualified on the medium rear, he (and teammate Lorenzo) ran the soft in the race.
Everything was different for Lorenzo, who identified two problems; “We were very close with the fuel so from lap 3 I needed to put the last switch of the fuel setting, the lowest power one, and my bike was slower than normal.
The second problem, “From lap 12-15 I started losing a lot of traction on the right side and I needed to slow down.”
This is very interesting because in the lap times of all the top riders the same tire “step” can be seen taking effect just at lap 12. So it was the differing responses of the riders to this change, and the nature of their set-ups that made the difference. This “step” was not a special Yamaha problem, but for the factory men the response to it was crippling. This is why, at various times over the past 3-4 years, it has looked as though the day of the corner-speed rider is over.
Yet there is Lorenzo, making steady progress in the mutual adaptation of corner-speed man and stop-and-go bike. He led almost half of this race and rather than falling back with permanent grip loss he finished a creditable fourth. He is on a trend of improvement.
Johann Zarco on the Tech3 satellite Yamaha was fifth, on a soft tire. Rossi said of him, “Zarco can use the soft because he’s lighter, shorter, and also have a riding style very, very smooth a lot of the time.”
Zarco said, “When I claimed fifth position the tires dropped a bit so I tried to manage it. I wanted to catch Lorenzo in fourth, however it was not possible; battling with the leading guys is very exciting!”
To sum up, everyone had problems of one kind or another, so the result depended on how each rider compensated. Andrea Dovizioso was his usual analytic and controlled self—but with an edge that Marc Marquez could not overcome. And after 11 nail-biting rounds, Desmo Dovi is running a close second behind Marquez in the championship as the race heads to Silverstone in less than two weeks.