Penultimate race for Dovizioso in Austria

Andrea Dovizioso is the driver with the most victories in MotoGP au Red Bull Ring with three successes. Moreover, his victory at the 2020 Austrian GP is also his last podium to date. 

This weekend, the Italian, runner-up to Marc Marquez in MotoGP from 2017 to 2019, will race for the last time on the track where he has the most victories of his entire MotoGP career. But it will be the first time that he will officiate there on a Yamaha. “At the Austrian circuit, I only remember very important memories,” he said. I don't know what I can do there with the Yamaha YZR-M1, but it's a really wonderful place, the surroundings are beautiful, you can breathe fresh air and I'm happy to come back to Spielberg for race there once again. »

That last corner at #QatarGP reminded us of something…🤔

Dovi vs. Marquez Round 1: Relive the battle at the 2017 #AustrianGP 🥊💢#MotoGP | 🎥 https://t.co/5x69CmNJ8H pic.twitter.com/lruMN3nrdN

- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) March 19, 2018

For Razlan Razali, boss of the Yamaha RNF team, it will be a question of Dovizioso and his teammate Darryn Binder doing their best on a circuit where Yamaha only has a third place as best results (twice with fabio quartararo and once with Jorge Lorenzo). “This is the penultimate event before Andrea’s retirement in Misano,” underlines the Malaysian. We have to see what he can do, because he didn't race in Austria last year. For both riders the aim is to score some points at a circuit which is not traditionally favorable to Yamaha, but we saw Fabio (Quartararo) get on the podium there last year and a few years ago with us. Therefore, we just have to do the best we can for our drivers this weekend. »

A new chicane 

For this 2022 edition of the Austrian GP, ​​the MotoGP protagonists will race on a modified track with the addition of a chicane after the first turn; the objective being to strengthen security. “Austria is not one of our favorite circuits, even if the facilities are fantastic, but the track layout does not really suit our bike,” judges Wilco Zeelenberg, team manager of the RNF team. That said, they have now changed the first long straight after the first corner and fitted a chicane for safety reasons. So they are trying to avoid these dangerous accidents that we have experienced in recent years. From now on it will be a stop-and-go style, which is not really easy, but anyway, we are ready. We had a good break after Assen. The restart at Silverstone was nice, the weather was good and the results were mixed. Still, we finished the race with both drivers and we now look forward to continuing this in Austria. »