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Dovizioso: Michelin doesn't have wet-tyre races "under control"

Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso has hit out at the choice of options made available by MotoGP control tyre supplier Michelin after his front tyre suffered major issues in Sunday’s Czech Grand Prix.

Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team

Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team

Toni Börner

Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team
Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team
Andrea Iannone, Ducati Team, Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team, Scott Redding, Pramac Racing
Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team
Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team
Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team
Race winner Cal Crutchlow, Team LCR Honda

Factory rider Dovizioso was running in the lead group when he went straight on at Turn 1 and into the gravel, and was visibly distressed by the condition of his front tyre – which appeared to have lost its tread integrity on the central section.

Teammate Andrea Iannone and Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo also suffered similar chunking problems having chosen the soft-compound wet front tyre – although some managed to nurse the tyre to the finish without hitting terminal problems.

"Very disappointed, I was in the first group and trying to manage to rear tyre, which I thought we'd have to do if we didn't stop [to change bikes]," said Dovizioso. "So I didn't use a lot of power to manage that, and I used too much the front tyre.

"It was a completely new [tyre] and I decided to push a little bit more on the front, to save the rear, and I was the first rider to have a problem. What happened I'm not too surprised, because the front tyre we use is really, really soft. In that condition with not a lot of water, it can happen.

"In any case I think Michelin still doesn't have the situation under control in the rain, and we need more specs in this moment. When you lose a piece of the [front] tyre, it's dangerous."

"We can't make every race"

When asked about the options available to riders in wet conditions, Dovizioso doesn't think there are enough choices available.

"I'm not happy about the allocation we have, because we have the extra, extra soft we used in Sachsenring and we have the hardest tyre in our allocation – so the gap is too big for me," he said. "With these two tyres we can't make every race – it's not the right choice for me.

"For example, almost nobody took the hard front because in the past, with a softer spec of the hard we have today, everybody had a problem with grip. Most of the riders were struggling. Some took a risk [with the hard tyres], and it was the right decision.

"For sure, Cal [Crutchlow] won with that, but it is really hard. It worked here because the grip is good and the water [took] very long [to dry]."

Additional reporting by Jamie Klein

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