Ducati dismiss idea of using team orders ‘especially if a rider is faster’

Team orders are yet to be used by Ducati so far this season, although the Qatar MotoGP produced one of the first situations where it appeared as though that was the case.

A mapping 8 message was sent to Fabio Di Giannantonio, which in the past has been used by the factory team to tell Jorge Lorenzo not to attack Andrea Dovizioso, in 2017.

• Di Giannantonio: “It’s just my second year, I think I’m doing everything on time 
• Bagnaia: “Jorge will have to attack, we are in the best position”

But the meaning was different when Gresini sent that to Di Giannantonio’s dash, leaving Ciabatti surprised. 

“Actually I didn’t know and I don’t know how it came out,” said the Italian when speaking to MotoGP.com. “Anyway, we always said that we never want a rider with a chance to win to renounce winning, especially if he’s faster. Fabio was faster than everybody else.”

Ciabatti also spoke about the title fight from Jorge Martin’s perspective, after the Pramac rider suffered a shock result on Sunday.

After winning the sprint and looking like a favourite to repeat that in the main race, Martin never got anywhere close to the front, instead dropping down to tenth come the end of the race.

Ciabatti added: “It was an incredible weekend of racing. On Saturday Jorge did a fantastic race and Pecco was struggling because he could not find the same pace as Friday and Saturday morning, but today he was able to pull away. 

“Emotional in a way because Di Giannantonio is in a strange situation at the moment and his maiden win in this manner was well deserved. 

“Pecco second and Marini third; another three Italians on the podium [together] happened some time ago. 

“It was a shame for Jorge because he had some trouble and could not do the race he was expecting to do. 

“Now we go to Valencia knowing it will be a Ducati1-2-3 in the championship because Marco is third.”