Hervé Poncharal's team Tech3 clinched a fantastic result for the first MotoGP round of the year. On 8 April at the Losail circuit, in Qatar, Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso climbed up among the factory riders by bagging 4th and 5th places. Whereas, in the lead of the race, Jorge Lorenzo on his Yamaha managed to keep ahead of the Hondas of Pedrosa and Stoner, just behind, the two Tech3 men fought a real duel. Crutchlow had qualified on the first row for the first time since his arrival in Grand Prix, but Dovizioso had a better start and led for 17 laps ahead of his team-mate, before the latter passed him and managed to keep his place all the way to the arrival.
The British rider was of course on cloud nine: 'It's a superb way of beginning the season but the race was very hard. I didn't get off to a very good start, I lost a few places and that's a pity because I could perhaps have been closer to the Top 3 (…). We had a fine tussle with Andrea and I had a really good time'.
Dovizioso remained more reserved: 'Fifth place isn't a bad result but I can't be satisfied with it. I feel I still lack experience on the Yamaha (…). I'll try to remember the positive aspects of this experience, my team did very good work and helped me a lot to better understand this bike and to be stronger in Jerez'. Everyone will be back together again in Spain in three weeks, on 29 April.
Standings
01// Jorge Lorenzo - Yamaha - 25 pts
02// Dani Pedrosa - Honda - 20 pts
03// Casey Stoner - Honda - 16 pts
04// Cal Crutchlow - Yamaha Tech3 - 13 pts MOTUL
05// Andrea Dovizioso - Yamaha Tech3 - 11 pts MOTUL
