The Ducati Team rider had a good race today at the MotorLand circuit in Spain, finishing in fifth place in the Aragon GP.
Dovizioso, who started from row 5 in the thirteenth grid slot, managed to get an excellent start and made up numerous places on the opening lap, which he finished in seventh. The man from Forlì then continued to move up through the field over the next three laps and crossed the line on lap 4 in fifth. Dovizioso remained in that position until the flag, holding off attacks from Bradley Smith and Aleix Espargaro. Dovizioso is still sixth in the overall standings, but his gap to Smith is now reduced to just four points.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 5th
“Let’s say that I am pleased and not pleased at the same time. With the race pace that I had, I think I managed to bring home the best possible result, but this doesn’t make me happy. For sure we have to work to improve the bike, because I am unable to brake and ride the way I want, and as a result I am not as fast as I would like to be. If I look at today’s race however, considering that I was starting from thirteenth on the grid, finishing fifth is a good result.”

Today proved to be a bit difficult for Andrea Dovizioso, who in FP3 was unable to make the best of the soft rear tyre he fitted towards the end of the session, and he finished in eleventh place, which meant he had to take part in Q1. After a good performance in FP4, in which he finished fifth, the rider from Forlì tackled the first qualifying session. Unfortunately his best time of 1’48.294, third-quickest, was not sufficient to gain entry into Q2, and so Dovizioso finished the day in thirteenth place and will have to start from row 5 of the grid.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’48.294 (13th)
“It was a real pity today, because if we had managed to get into Q2 I think we could have been able to do a good qualifying session and get a place on the first three rows. I didn’t do a perfect lap in Q1 because in the first two corners the rear tyre gave me the impression that it wasn’t at the right temperature, even though I was sure I had bedded it in well. Sometimes you don’t get a perfect tyre, but even without this we could have got a better result even though I had the impression that my time was good enough to get into Q2. In FP4 we improved and our pace is now good enough for me to stay just behind the leading group. A better qualifying position would have been important, but now the only thing to do is to try and make up some places with a good start.”

The 2015 MotoGP World Championship is about to enter a crucial phase, with the final five rounds taking place over the next seven weeks. Two rounds in Spain – the Gran Premio de Aragón and the GP de la Comunitat Valenciana – bookend the three overseas events (Japan, Australia and Malaysia) in the month of October. This weekend therefore the Spanish track is gearing up for the fourteenth round of the season.
Andrea Dovizioso has raced in every edition of the Aragón GP, his best result being a third place in 2012.
The Aragón weekend programme begins on Friday morning with the first free practice session at 9.55 am CET, while the 23-lap race is scheduled for Sunday at 2 pm.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 6th (128 points)
“For sure we want to make up for the Misano race: Aragón is a track where last year I was going well before I crashed when it began to rain. It’s a very unusual circuit and is interesting for us with the GP15, because it will give us an idea of how competitive we are. I expect a lot from this weekend.”

The TIM San Marino Grand Prix was held in changeable weather conditions, which gave rise to an exciting 28-lap race. The rain began to fall a few laps into the race, becoming heavier after a few laps, so the riders came into the pits to change their bikes. Around the mid-point the track had dried out again and the riders came into the pits a second time to change, this time to bikes with dry weather settings.
Dovizioso, who started from row 3, ran the first five laps in seventh. He briefly took the lead on lap 7, before stopping to switch over to his ‘wet’ machine on lap 8. Returning to the track in eighth place, the Italian crossed the line in seventh on lap 16 and three laps later he again pitted to switch bikes. Dovizioso returned to the race in thirteenth place but he was back up to eighth with four laps to go before the flag.
In the overall standings, Dovizioso has been passed by Smith and he drops back to sixth place with 128 points.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 8th
“It was a real pity and I feel disappointed for the team because we missed out on an important opportunity to score a good result, but unfortunately I had the wrong strategy. Both bike switches I didn’t do at the right time, and I will take the blame for that: I’m really disappointed about it, because we could have got a good result. That will certainly be useful for the future, but it’s always complicated to understand when it’s the right time to come into the pits and change bikes.”

The Ducati Team’s factory rider, Andrea Dovizioso, will start the 28-lap race from the third row of the grid after setting eighth-quickest time at the San Marino GP, which will be held on Sunday at the Misano World Circuit.
In the morning’s FP3 session, decisive for access into Q2, Dovizioso was fourth quickest, result that put him straight into the final qualifying session.
The 30-minute pre-qualifying FP4 session in the early afternoon ended with Dovizioso fourth.
The Ducati rider, who went out on soft rear tyres, set his quickest lap on his second exit of the Q2 session.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’32.934 (8th)
“Pity about my qualifying but I didn’t do a perfect lap. I feel sure I could have got into fourth or fifth place and so I’m disappointed, because the second row is important. However we managed to improve our performance in FP4 in race set-up and so tomorrow, with a good start, I feel sure we can be competitive.”

Andrea Dovizioso set the fourth-quickest combined time in free practice for the TIM San Marino Grand Prix at the Misano World Circuit.
In the morning’s FP1 the Ducati Team rider was fifth, while in the afternoon session, that saw all the top riders improve their times, Dovizioso went out on track in the last few minutes with a soft rear and clocked a time of 1’33.291 which put him fourth in the provisional timesheets.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’33.291 (4th)
“Today was a good day, even though I didn’t have an optimal feeling with the bike. I just didn’t feel good on it, but for the moment I am unable to explain why. Maybe after doing the tests here at Misano my expectations were different and I thought I could establish a good feeling straight away. There’s nothing to be alarmed about however because in any case my performance was good. Now we have to understand if there is something strange in our settings or if it was simply due to the track conditions seeing as today the times were much higher than those we set in testing.”

After three races in August, Andrea Dovizioso is back on home ground in Italy again for the Gran Premio TIM di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini, thirteenth round of the 2015 MotoGP World Championship. DesmoDovi comes to Misano off the back of a great performance at Silverstone, where he finished third after a wet-weather battle with his fellow Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci. Dovizioso has never actually been on the Misano podium in the seven MotoGP races he has competed in since 2008, his best result a fourth place, which he obtained four times, in 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2014.

On Thursday morning there will be a unique opportunity to see the Ducati Team and riders as Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone parade their Desmosedici GP15 machines through the historic centre of San Marino. The event, which begins in Piazza Fabbri and ends in Piazza della Libertà, is scheduled for an 11.45 start.

The Misano weekend programme gets underway on Friday morning with first free practice at 09.55 CET, while the 28-lap race is scheduled for Sunday at 14.00.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 5th (120 points)
“At Silverstone my GP15 was more competitive, and the Misano test at the end of August helped with that, so we come here pretty confident. We know that it won’t be easy to repeat that performance, but at least now we can stay closer to the guys at the front, as you could see in England. I have to admit that the Misano track is not one of my favourites, but this GP is also our second ‘home’ race so I feel sure our tifosi will provide us with an extra gear!”