Alvaro Bautista turns in great performance at Mugello with 5th
The MotoGP World Championship reached a third distance for the season today with Italian riders setting the standard at Mugello. Andrea Dovizioso completed a home victory treble started by Andrea Migno in Moto3 and Mattia Pasini in Moto2.
The Ducati rider took his third MotoGP victory and presented the Borgo Panigale factory with a first win of the season in a race he started from the front row. Dovizioso gradually consolidated his position in the front group until, at the start of lap 14 of a total of 23, he took a lead he would not relinquish.
Behind, Maverick ViƱales, Valentino Rossi and Ducati independent rider Danilo Petrucci fought for the rest of the podium positions, which finally went to the Spaniard and Petrucci.
Pull & Bear Aspar rider Ćlvaro Bautista completed the top five with a great performance at Mugello. Bautista brought the Pull & Bear Aspar Team back to the top 5 after a brilliant race that saw him gradually close in on the front and finish just three seconds from the podium.
The Spaniard started the race with a clear goal of just making sure of a finish, so was a little tense in the first few turns. Once he loosened up he dispatched of the likes of Jorge Lorenzo and Marc MƔrquez to claim fifth and spark the celebrations in the Pull & Bear Aspar garage.
5th Ćlvaro Bautista:
“Today it was important to make it to the end of the race, after the two non-finishes in the last two races in Jerez and Le Mans, where we could have done well. We needed to finish. I had good pace, but I lost some positions at the beginning because I was a little stiff. Then, I started to relax and pick up my rhythm, and little by little I was passing the riders ahead. When I caught Marc MĆ”rquez, I thought about pushing to see if I could leave him behind, but he hooked on and it was difficult. Lap by lap the variation in the gap to the lead was very small but it served as reference. On the last lap, I tried to close all the doors to prevent him passing me, I did it and now I can say I finished fifth. I am happy to finish the race and especially to do it in this way. This was a real fifth position, not down to problems for other riders like in Argentina, where we were fourth. It gives us a real boost of morale for Barcelona.ā