Andrea Dovizioso took his second win of the season, his second in a seven day period and the fourth of his MotoGP career at Sunday afternoon's Catalan Grand Prix.

After a brilliant home win in Mugello a week ago, no one could have predicted that the Italian rider would give Ducati another victory so soon, especially when it was his teammate, Jorge Lorenzo, who got a brilliant start from P2 on the grid to lead the field away for the opening dfew laps. However, just as it was in Mugello, Lorenzo's run at the front was short lived and soon started dropping back through the field, being overtaken firstly by both Repsol Honda and then Dovizioso.

Dovi held back behind the two Honda's for quite some time, nursing his tyres and making sure he didn't take too much out of them in too short a time, before he finally went in for the kill and overtook first Marc Marquez then on lap 17 he overtook Dani Pedrosa for the lead, where e stayed until the chequered flag.

“Today we have obtained another magnificent result just seven days after our splendid win at Mugello!” said Luigi Dall'Igna, Ducati Corse General Manager. “We knew that the Montmelò track was a tough one for us: last year we suffered a lot and it was for this reason that recently we did two days' testing which surely helped, seeing as here our bikes were in good shape, even those of our satellite teams."

"Andrea rode intelligently and did a really great race, but also Jorge finished the GP well in fourth after a great start. I'm really very happy, and I want to thank everyone in Ducati Corse for their great commitment!”

The two Repsol Honda riders rounded out the podium in second and third places while Jorge Lorenzo got a second wind late in the race and fought back to fourth place.

The Yamaha riders had a tough afternoon with Valentino Rossi finishing in P8 and world championship leader Maverick Vinales finishing tenth. This means the championship battle has tightened dramatically with only a handful of points between Vinales and Dovizioso.

"We expected today‘s race to be particularly challenging for us, as we encountered some difficulties in all practice sessions. We knew that under such circumstances like today – hot weather and low-grip asphalt – our bike is not as competitive as we‘ve seen it in other races," explained Yamaha's Massimo Meregalli.

"Eighth and tenth is not exactly what we were aiming for, but they‘re valuable points for the championship and now we put this race in our archive and focus on the next races. It‘s good that we are staying in Montmeló for tomorrow‘s test, so we‘ll be in the position to get immediate feedback about the new materials our engineers have developed."

"They‘ve brought two new frames with the aim to improve the performance of the bike in situations like today‘s and we will be back soon on the highest step of the podium."

The MotoGP paddock heads to Assen in two weeks' time after a one day test on Barcelona today.

  1. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati Team - 44'41.518
    2. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team - 3.544
    3. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda Team - 6.774
    4. Jorge LORENZO, Ducati Team - 9.608
    5. Johann ZARCO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - 13.838
    6. Jonas FOLGER, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - 13.921
    7. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Pull&Bear Aspar Team - 16.763
    8. Valentino ROSSI, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - 20.821
    9. Hector BARBERA, Reale Avintia Racing - 23.952
    10. Maverick VIÑALES, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - 24.189
    11. Cal CRUTCHLOW, LCR Honda - 28.329
    12. Loris BAZ, Reale Avintia Racing - 33.281
    13. Scott REDDING, OCTO Pramac Racing - 35.200
    14. Karel ABRAHAM, Pull&Bear Aspar Team - 39.436
    15. Tito RABAT, EG 0,0 Marc VDS - 40.872
    16. Andrea IANNONE, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - 43.221
    17. Sylvain GUINTOLI, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - 44.655
    18. Pol ESPARGARO, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - 48.993
    19. Sam LOWES, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini - 55.492

    MotoGP World Standing 2017 after the GP of Catalunya
    1. Maverick VIÑALES, Yamaha - 111
    2. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati - 104
    3. Marc MARQUEZ, Honda - 88
    4. Dani PEDROSA, Honda - 84
    5. Valentino ROSSI, Yamaha - 83
    6. Johann ZARCO, Yamaha - 75
    7. Jorge LORENZO, Ducati - 59
    8. Jonas FOLGER, Yamaha - 51
    9. Cal CRUTCHLOW, Honda - 45
    10. Danilo PETRUCCI, Ducati - 42
    11. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Ducati - 34
    12. Scott REDDING, Ducati - 33
    13. Jack MILLER, Honda - 30
    14. Loris BAZ, Ducati - 23
    15. Andrea IANNONE, Suzuki - 21
    16. Hector BARBERA Ducati - 21
    17. Tito RABAT, Honda - 19
    18. Aleix ESPARGARO, Aprilia - 17
    19. Karel ABRAHAM, Ducati - 11
    20. Michele PIRRO, Ducati - 7
    21. Alex RINS, Suzuki - 7
    22. Pol ESPARGARO, KTM - 6
    23. Bradley SMITH, KTM - 6
    24. Sam LOWES, Aprilia - 2
    25. Sylvain GUINTOLI, Suzuki – 1