MOTOGP 2020 IN REVIEW
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to be the end of the illustrious career of Andrea
Dovizioso. The week Pramac Ducati's Jack Miller
was confirmed as moving up to the factory Ducati
team for 2021, Dovizioso announced he was
unable to come to terms with factory and would
leave the team at the end of the season.
Feeling undervalued in the Ducati outfit and re-
fusing to take a pay cut bought on by the financial
strains of Covid-19, Dovizioso decided to pack his
bags but not before sticking it to the bosses one
last time by taking the win that same weekend in
Austria—his first and, as it would turn out, only win
of the season.
Later in the year, and with no MotoGP offers on
the table that interested him, Dovizioso announced
he would be taking a one-year sabbatical from the
sport. This could turn into possible retirement, as
teams look to younger, hungrier riders from Moto2
to fill the next generation of MotoGP seats.
However, while Austria saw the beginning of the
end of Andrea Dovizioso's MotoGP career, it sig-
naled the start of someone else's. Suzuki's Joan Mir
had endured a subdued start to the season, taking
DNF-5-DNF results so far, but Austria 1 proved to be
a turning point. The former Moto3 World Champion
scored his first MotoGP podium at the Red Bull
Ring in second, just 1.3 seconds off Dovi in first,
with Miller taking third for his first podium of 2020.
Austria 2 was the point where Mir had well
and truly arrived. After Pol Espargaro qualified
on pole, Mir built up a commanding 2.4-second
lead over the ever-improving Takaaki Nakagami
(LCR Idemitsu Honda) when the red flag flew after
Maverick Vinales' brakes exploded entering turn
one at 140 mph. The Spaniard bailed, and his bike
smashed into the air fence, breaking in two.
Incredibly, the Ecstar Suzuki team had run out of
their weekend's allocation of soft tires for the 12-lap
sprint restart, and Mir dropped to fourth at the flag.
The final lap of Austria 2 will go down as one of
the best of not just this year but the decade, as
Jack Miller and Pol Espargaro locked horns with
Miguel Oliveira right behind them. Miller went for
the Hail Mary, sending it up the inside of Espar-
garo at the final corner only to run wide and let
Oliveira sneak under the pair of them in the dash
In what was a case of monumental
luck, Valentino Rossi and Maverick
Vinales missed being taken out by
Franco Morbidelli's cartwheeling
Yamaha by inches. It could have
been fatal.
