Zoom Andrea Dovizioso

The Chinese Grand Prix weekend has been one of extremes in weather. First high temperatures yesterday and Friday, then overnight rain and then more heavy rain this morning, which only stopped at the start of the 250cc race.

So, when the MotoGP race began everyone was on slick tyres, but the temperature was much lower than yesterday. Despite this, Andrea Dovizioso was able to move forward from his grid slot and able to fight for fourth position with Nicky Hayden, Marco Melandri and Colin Edwards. Once more the JiR Team Scot rider was able to show his quality, fighting spirit and determination.

He ran an excellent race, but was affected at the end with a loss of grip, which saw him slip down to 11th position at the flag.

Cirano Mularoni– Team Manager, JiR Team Scot
“It has been a tough weekend. The weather conditions changed so much during practice and then the rain overnight and this morning changed completely the grip levels of the track. During warm-up under wet conditions we were confident with the technical choices we had made, but before the start of the race in the dry we had to go for a tyre solution that we hadn't tried before in those conditions. Andrea showed that he was able to fight as usual with the top riders and he only had to give up at the end of the race thanks to a loss of grip.”

Andrea Dovizioso – Final position: 11th – 9th best lap: 2' 00.619
“The final result of today doesn't show our real potential. From 11th on the grid I knew I was still in a good condition to come up to the head of the race and fight for the top positions. During the first part of race I could really show my potential for a good result. I was so sorry to be further back at the chequered flag but the weather conditions forced us to make some technical choices that we had not really tested in these conditions. I tried to resist the attacks from Hayden and Melandri, but unfortunately the situation we had got worse and I had to slow down a lot meaning I didn't have the chance to fight. I'm sorry for the team as they all worked so hard and I was looking for a better result, which would give us more satisfaction after so much hard work was done over the course of the weekend.”

Gianni Berti – Technical Co-ordinator, JiR Team Scot
“During practice the temperature went as high as 46 degrees and in those conditions we had a very good balance of the bike. Also we were sure that in wet conditions, which we experienced in warm-up this morning we knew that we could also be competitive. These were very positive indications, but in the end the rain on the track dried completely and the temperature was just 21 degrees, so we had to make a quick choice, which unfortunately didn't help us in the second part of the race.”

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