Dovizioso: Marquez has something more in attack

Andrea Dovizioso says only Marc Marquez can attempt last-corner overtakes in his style after taking victory over the reigning MotoGP world champion in another late duel in Qatar.

In a repeat of last year’s race, Dovizioso held off last-lap attacks from Marquez to take the first win of the season by just 0.023s.

Dovizioso gave credit to Marquez for his late fight for victory, the fifth time the pair have contested a final corner tussle for victory in recent seasons, and feels nobody else on the MotoGP grid could pull off the strategy the Repsol Honda rider used.

“At the end he was able to overtake me but in Marc’s style!” Dovizioso said. “He is so good to try the overtake also when he doesn't have the same speed. But I was able to answer in the right way because my acceleration was really good.

“It's nice to win like this, against a champion. But just Marc is able to do that. In that situation nobody entry I think. It is a desperate situation, he wanted to try. All over riders would think in that situation, stay behind me and finish second.

“So it's positive to finish like this. But unfortunately, it is his advantage. He is able to create that, and sometimes it works and sometimes not.”

Asked to elaborate on Marquez’s “advantage”, Dovizioso says it comes down to riding styles and feels the Spanish rider is able to stay the right side of the limit of his complete package without crashing.

“It's difficult to explain,” he said. “When you behind a rider and you have to take a risk to brake so hard, lock the front, the rear, don't make a mistake and stay on the corner, it's very difficult.

“You feel the fear. You feel, I can't do that. I think Marc has something more about that and is able to play a little bit more than us in this situation. He is able to try and try to manage.

“So he take a lot of risk but he's good most of the time to play on that limit. But we know that and we try to answer I the right way.”