Dovizioso concedes title to Marquez

Andrea Dovizioso says it will be ‘impossible’ to win the MotoGP world title after finishing as the runner-up to Marc Marquez at Aragon on Sunday.

Marquez increased his title lead to 72 points with five races remaining and Ducati rider Dovizioso has ruled out any prospect of overturning the deficit.

“To gain 72 points from five races to Marc is impossible. The only way is if he will not race, and even that is difficult to make 72 points!,” he said.

“If we want to be realistic, no. In the race, anything can happen, so mathematically it is open, but this is the situation.”

Dovizioso and Marquez traded places as they disputed the lead of the race before the championship leader eventually managed to put some distance between himself and the Ducati on the final two laps.

Some of the overtakes were close, but Dovizioso said he did not feel he was more aggressive than normal at Aragon.

“I’m aggressive when I have to be, or because I don’t have some other card to use. I already told the media before the weekend that I knew Marc wanted to win this race because it is one of his tracks,” he said. “That is why I expected what happened. He wanted to take the risk and do the maximum.”

Dovizioso, though, was happy with second place at a circuit where the Ducati has not normally been in contention and the Italian is optimistic for the races ahead.

“Phillip Island for sure is the worst track for our bike and it will be a very interesting weekend. I think we can be very competitive there this year, I don’t think it would be like some other tracks, but what happened this weekend was very important – more than Misano,” he said.

“In Misano, it was very important but here even more because this confirms our improvement, which is the reality and it’s even better for the future.”