Michelin Sees Dominant Dovizioso Produce A Mugello Masterpiece

Michelin witnessed the first Italian MotoGP™ winner on a Ducati at the Italian Grand Prix as Andrea Dovizioso rode to a superb victoryat Mugello today in front of his home crowd at the Gran Premio d’Italia Oakley.

Starting from third on the grid, Dovizioso (Ducati Team) was soon amongst the early leaders as home favourite Valentino Rossi (MovistarYamaha MotoGP) got the holeshot and led for the first three-laps. Rossi was then passed by team-mate and yesterday’s pole-setter MaverickViñales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), who held first place until lap-14 when Dovizioso made the race-winning manoeuvre to seize the lead andtake the chequered flag at the end of 23 demanding laps, a victory made even more impressive as Dovizioso had to sit out this morning’swarm-up through ill-health. Following the Italian across the line was Viñales, a result that extended his championship lead. Third-placewent to another home-hero as Danilo Petrucci (OCTO Pramac Racing) scored his first dry weather MotoGP podium and the honour of FirstIndependent Rider.

Today again underlined the usability of the range of MICHELIN Power Slick tyres, as each of the three front  and rear compounds wasused in  the race. The three  podium men  all used different pairings, Dovizioso had a medium front and rear compound, with Viñaleschoosing the hard front and rear and Petrucci favouring the hard front and medium rear.   This highlights the options that are available to all riders and manufacturers and was the first time this season that all six versions of the slick tyre had been used in a race. The durability andperformance of the MICHELIN Power Slicks were further emphasised as the race duration time of 41’32.126 set a new record, almost four-and-a-half seconds better than the previous best – which was achieved on Michelin tyres last season. Today’s result also saw the fourth differentwinner in as many races, again showing how the Michelin tyres adapt to all machinery, with three manufacturers taking victory from those fourraces.

The battle for the remaining top-10 places also produced to some exciting battles with Rossi coming home in fourth before his adoring homefans, who had bathed the grandstands in a sea of yellow – Rossi also produced a great ride after a training accident had threatened to ruleout his participation this weekend. Fifth went to Alvaro Bautista (Pull&Bear Aspar Ducati) after a spirited head-to-head with reigning WorldChampion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) who took sixth. Seventh went to Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) with Jorge Lorenzo(Ducati Team) and Michele Pirro (Ducati Team) taking eighth and ninth respectively. Andrea Iannone (Team SUZUKI ECSTAR) rounded out the top-10.

Today’s race was held in overcast and slightly cooler conditions than had been experienced during the first two days and the big crowd of over98,000 people that filled the Tuscan hillsides around the circuit were treated to an exciting day of racing. The Moto2™ and Moto3™ race were -like the main event – won by Italian riders, making today a true celebration.

The MotoGP circus now heads straight to Spain and the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya where round seven of the championship will takeplace next weekend.

Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team:

“It has been a really special feeling to win today in front of the home fans and on a Ducati. I felt really good on the tyres today. The reardidn’t drop at all so I was able to be consistent from the start to the finish, so I was happy about that. The front is not so easy to managehere, but overall we are happy because we did a great test here before the race with Michelin and that helped us to be perfect for the race.”

Nicolas Goubert – Deputy Director, Technical Director and Supervisor of the MotoGP Programme:

“We have had a very positive weekend here at Mugello. The stiffer construction front tyre worked