MotoGP: Dovi lays lion’s share of blame on Petrucci not Espargaró

History has repeated itself for the luckless Andrea Dovizioso, after he was torpedoed off his bike during Sunday’s Argentine Grand Prix for the second year in a row. T-boned in 2016 by then-teammate Andrea Iannone in the last corner (a move that cost the Italian his seat at the team), this year it was Aleix Espargaró who caught out the unfortunate Dovi.

However, despite admitting afterwards that Aprilia rider Espargaró was partly to blame for the incident, Dovizioso was instead quick to lay the lion’s share of the culpability on fellow Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci, who the pair were closing down at the time.

“When I was behind Danilo he completely finished his rear tyre and was riding in a bad way. He was braking in a strange way, and I think it was too much. Everyone tries to use their own style, and that’s normal and good, but the way he used it was bad.

“I tried to overtake him on the inside and he braked late and closed the door, and that doesn’t give the other rider the possibility to do anything. He’s heavier so he can brake harder. That created the crash, because I almost hit him and ran wide, and that made Aleix make his mistake. For sure Aleix made a mistake, but Danilo created it.”

And, coming exactly a year after last year’s unfortunate replica crash, the Italiuan came away from the weekend disappointed after making strong progress despite a slow start to the weekend.

“In Argentina I don’t have any luck at all, seeing as today I was taken out yet again, and I’m bitterly disappointed because being able to bring home a probably fifth place, in such a difficult weekend, would have been very important.”