Coming off the back of two races in the last two weeks, Andrea Dovizioso has arrived in Malaysia for the final appointment in this gruelling series of three end-of-season flyaway events, which will see the MotoGP teams notching up around 35,000 kilometres of air travel in less than a month.
In the premier class Andrea Dovizioso has stepped onto the podium twice in Malaysia in his six races there, the last time in 2010. Last year he finished in eighth place after qualifying fifth.
With two rounds to go before the end of the championship, Dovizioso is currently lying seventh overall with 153 points.
The Sepang weekend programme gets underway on Friday morning with the first free practice session at 09.55 (03.55 CET), while the 20-lap race is scheduled for Sunday at 15.00 (08.00 CET).

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 7th (153 points)
“For sure at Sepang we will be quicker than in Australia, because the Malaysian circuiti s one of my favourites and in the tests in February we immediately went well with the GP15 we had just debutted on-track, and so I am sure we will be competitive. Malaysia always has difficult conditions, with high temperatures and grip, and it won’t be easy to get the right set-up for the race, but I am convinced we will be a lot closer to the front guys. I’m also pleased that we are doing a race immediately after such a disappointing one in Australia, because it’s better for my mood!”

Andrea Dovizioso encountered some difficulties at the Australian track and could only finish in a provisional fourteenth place.
The Ducati Team rider was twelfth in the first session of the morning, which took place under cloudy skies and with air/track temperatures of 16°/20°C.
The sun made an appearance in the afternoon after a brief rain shower, and the temperatures rose to 20°/29° for FP2, which was held on a totally dry track surface.
Dovizioso, who had used an asymmetric front slick since the start, had some difficulties in the session. The Italian was unable to find a satisfactory set-up for his GP15 and he ended the day down in fourteenth place with a time of 1’30.451, which he set on his final exit with an extra-soft rear tyre.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’30.451 (14th)
“This afternoon I was not able to make the progress I had expected, especially because I really have to struggle to get the bike to turn in the long corners. However we are all very close and you don’t need much to get ahead. We have to understand exactly which areas we need to work on tomorrow: we knew it wasn’t going to be easy here, but we can improve and for sure I will have to adapt better to the track conditions and to the bike. Now we have to remain calm and work hard to get a better understanding of where we can shave something off our lap times.”

Just a few days after the GP of Japan, Andrea Dovizioso has arrived in Australia for the second leg in this exhausting series of three end-of-season overseas races on two different continents.
Andrea Dovizioso has stepped onto the podium three times in the different categories, including one win in 125cc in 2004 and a third place in MotoGP in 2011. Last year he finished the race in fourth.
With three rounds remaining until the end of the 2015 championship, Dovizioso is currently seventh overall on 150 points.
The weekend schedule at Phillip Island kicks off on Friday morning with the first free practice session at 10.55am local time (01.55 CET), while the 27-lap race is scheduled for Sunday at 4pm (07.00 CET).

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 7th (150 points)
“Phillip Island is not one of my favourite circuits, but with the GP15 I believe that this year we can be competitive, and so it should be a good weekend for us. It’ll actually be interesting to see how we will go here because last year I didn’t have a good feeling with the bike at all. Throughout the Motegi weekend, we did however improve on our performance and so also here we’ll be working hard to get a good result.”

Andrea Dovizioso scored a fifth-place finish in the Grand Prix of Japan, round 15 of the 2015 World Championship held today at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit.
This morning, poor visibility due to low clouds and heavy rainfall at the Japanese circuit meant that Race Direction took the decision to delay the warm-up sessions for all categories. The MotoGP race started on time and took place in wet conditions, but even though the rain had stopped the track surface never dried out completely.
Dovizioso, who started the race from row 2, immediately powered into third, a position he held until lap 10. On the following lap he was passed by Pedrosa, the eventual race winner, and in the next few laps he had to slow his pace because of progressive wear on his rain tyres. With four laps remaining, Andrea was no longer able to defend himself from the attacks of Marquez and he concluded the GP of Japan in fifth place.
Dovizioso drops to seventh behind Pedrosa and Smith in the overall standings.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 5th
“Today we didn’t have such a bad race pace, but after a few laps the front tyre started to deteriorate, and I was no longer able to brake well. It was a bit of a strange situation, because although everyone else probably had the same tyre wear, in my case at the start, when the track was still wet, the front was closing in all the time and I couldn’t push hard. It was a real pity because we had good pace and I think that we could have fought for the podium. In any case we took home a fifth place in difficult conditions because it was not easy to get to the chequered flag. It was a real pity because we had a lot more potential today.”

The Ducati Team rider will start from the second row of the grid for the Grand Prix of Japan, round 15 of the MotoGP World Championship, which will be held on Sunday at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit, having clocked the fourth-quickest time of 1’44.322 in qualifying.
Dovi set excellent time in this morning’s FP3, in which he also turned in a good race pace, and the session ended with a good third place.
In the early afternoon’s FP4 run, the Ducati Team’s Desmosedici GP15 bikes appeared on track with two extra new “winglets” fitted to the front fairing, the aim of which is to reduce the bike’s tendency to wheelie. The session finished with Dovizioso seventh.
Dovizioso immediately put on the extra-soft rear tyre in the decisive qualifying session and went on to set his quickest time on his second run, finishing the day in fourth with a gap of 0.532 seconds from poleman Jorge Lorenzo.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’44.322 (4th)
“I’m a bit disappointed about my fourth place in qualifying, but I think that at the most we could have got a third place and nothing more. So for me that’s OK, because I also feel we’ve worked well throughout the weekend and we have a good race pace. We’re still missing a bit of pace to stay with Lorenzo, who is quite far away, but we are back to being quick and amongst the frontrunners once again. Now we’ll only get a better idea of how competitive we are in tomorrow’s race.”