Dovizioso: Marquez has something more, depends on conditions

Andrea Dovizioso feels the varying levels of dry or wet weather for the Valencia MotoGP will be key to his race pace but fears Marc Marquez still holds an advantage after qualifying.

The factory Ducati rider was thrilled to confirm vital set-up changes were successful to his pace in the wet during FP3, ending the session second fastest to take third on the combined practice times, before powering to third place in qualifying in dry conditions at Circuit Ricardo Tormo.

Dovizioso says the different amount of rain and wet conditions, having experienced intermittent showers throughout practice, is likely to dictate his pace if the 2018 finale is a wet race.

“I am happy with the improvements from this morning as we expected the improvements but you have to be on track to confirm that,” Dovizioso said. “We changed the balance of the bike and it was much better.

“With the quantity of the water that we found this morning our bike works well. We have to see tomorrow in the race if there will be heavy rain like yesterday afternoon and how the bike can work.”

But Dovizioso still tips Marquez to hold a clear pace advantage regardless of conditions in Valencia. Marquez starts fifth on the grid after a painful qualifying crash which he bounced back from in dramatic style.

“Overall it was a really good day as in the wet we became competitive,” he said “Marc had something more I think, a little bit more, but you know in Valencia anything can happen in 27 laps which is a long race. We have to see how much water there will be on track.

“The race is a different story. Let’s see if it is dry or wet and I think we have a good pace but we found strange and difficult conditions in every race so we have to wait for the conditions of the race.”