Dovizioso: Marquez made a step since Barcelona
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Andrea Dovizioso says the gap to Marc Marquez since the Catalan MotoGP became too big to bridge in the riders’ championship and concedes the Repsol Honda rider’s current consistency has denied him the chance to fight back.With Marquez on the cusp of sealing the 2019 MotoGP world title this weekend in Thailand, needing to outscore Dovizioso by just two points to take the championship with four rounds to spare, Dovizioso accepts his title fight is over given his deficit in the standings.Assessing his own campaign against Marquez, the Ducati rider feels the Catalan round became pivotal to the title race when he was taken out by Jorge Lorenzo during the opening stages of the race at Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona, in an incident which also took out factory Yamaha duo Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi, while Marquez was able to storm to victory.Dovizioso feels Marquez’s points lead coupled with his consistency means he’s been unable to battle back in the world championship fight.“We try to the do the maximum like everybody, the reality is especially after Barcelona Marc did a step and he will always fight for victory and the gap was always small when he finished second,” Dovizioso said. “We tried to improve our situation, we’d like to be faster because in this situation we are not able to fight for the championship.“We are second, we are in a good situation, also in Aragon we did a good race, but it is not enough – the gap to Marc is big, because every race he is there and he can fight for victory so we are focused more on understanding what we can do, where we have to be better and how we can be better.”Dovizioso says his focus has now switched to improving his Ducati package in preparation for a title attack in 2020.“When your base is good, to make improvements is not easy. We are focused more on that than the championship, I mean the championship is, we can say, over,” he said.“Two points, is always there, but it doesn’t change the approach because you try to work in the best way to make the best result on Sunday.”
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