After getting off to an excellent start from row 5, Andrea Dovizioso finished the opening lap in fifth place and passed Aleix Espargarò for fourth on lap 5. The Romagna-born rider then closed up to the leading trio and, after Rossi’s retirement, moved into third place. After eight laps however he had to give up the position, first to his team-mate and then Pedrosa, and he finished the race with a good fifth place.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team # 04) – 5th
“The weekend finished with a good fifth place and that’s positive, especially since I haven’t seen the chequered flag for quite a few races. Starting so far behind could have penalized me, but I was able to get off the line well and immediately reach the leading group. We had worked well on race pace and so I was quite quick, but I was unable to be smooth and half-way through the race I had a problem with arm pump in my right arm and lost a lot of my strength. This problem forced me to drop my pace, but above all it caused me to make a few errors including one at San Donato, which prevented me from remaining in the battle for the podium in the last few laps. I’m disappointed for the team because despite it being a difficult weekend, we managed to find a very good race pace. A podium would have been a good reward but unfortunately this time we couldn’t make it, so we’ll have to continue working to do better from the next round onwards.”

Andrea Dovizioso’s day was a bit of a complicated one, after he suffered a problem with his neck yesterday which hampered him during free practice. In FP3 the Italian was unable to get into the top 10 and he finished the session in twelfth place. After a good FP4 session, which saw him place fourth, Andrea went out in Q1 but despite setting an excellent time of 1’47.089, he was unable to go through into Q2.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team # 04) – 1’47.089 (13th)
“It was a tough day today. This morning I couldn’t find a good feeling with my bike, which prevented me from getting into the top 10 and made things very difficult. However we did a really good job in FP4, and made a lot of progress. In Q1, after my first run with a hard tyre, I went out with softer rubber and lapped in 1’47.089, a time that would have put me onto row 2 if I had done it in Q2, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to go through to the next round. No excuses: I take full responsibility but basically we are missing a full session of practice: yesterday I wasn’t able to work the way I wanted because of my neck problem. I’m sorry that for just a fraction of a second we are right behind on the grid on row 5, but if we analyze FP4 and Q1 we’ve got the pace to stay with the front guys.”

Andrea Dovizioso’s day was conditioned by a severe pain in his neck that prevented him from riding at his best. The Romagna-born rider could only finish in thirteenth place.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’48.816 (13th)
“Unfortunately I had a problem with my neck that prevented me from moving my head back so I was forced to ride in an unnatural position on the bike. We did everything possible to solve the problem with my physiotherapist and the Clinica Mobile and I thank them for that, but in any case I was hampered by this problem. The track conditions are a bit different to the test a few weeks ago, and so we will have to work well to adapt to the ones here now.”

Andrea Dovizioso has arrived at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello for the TIM Italian Grand Prix, round 6 of the 2016 MotoGP World Championship and always one of the most prestigious rounds on the calendar, which will be held this weekend at the magnificent circuit in the heart of Tuscany.
It will be a special event for the Ducati Team rider, seeing as it is the legendary Italian factory’s home race, and as always he will feel the support of numerous Ducati fans, including the 2500 packed into the Ducati Grandstand at the Correntaio curve.
Twelve months ago Andrea Dovizioso, after starting alongside on the front row, was forced to retire on lap 14.
The Italian GP weekend gets underway on Friday morning with the first free practice session at 9.55 am, while the 23-lap race is scheduled for Sunday at 2 pm.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 11th (23 points)
“We have to be happy with the work that we’ve done until now because we have shown that we are quick in both practice and qualifying at almost every circuit, but sometimes we are unable to keep the same pace in the race. Our aim now therefore is to be quick but also to spend less energy and be less aggressive in order to preserve the tyres. At Mugello we will all have that little bit of extra motivation to do well, seeing as it is Ducati’s home race.”

Ducati wishes to announce that it has reached an agreement with Andrea Dovizioso for the 2017 and 2018 MotoGP seasons. The Romagna-born rider, who has been with Ducati since 2013, will team up with Jorge Lorenzo for the next two seasons aboard the Ducati Team’s Desmosedici GP bike.

Andrea Dovizioso: “I am very satisfied to have reached this agreement with Ducati and to be able to continue the adventure begun back with them in 2013. In the last few years we have worked with a lot of commitment and we have succeeded in taking the Desmosedici GP to an excellent competitive level, and so I am convinced that soon we will obtain the satisfaction that we deserve.”

Luigi Dall’Igna: “It’s never easy to take a decision like this one, especially when you have two great riders like the two Andreas in your team. We are very happy that Dovizioso has agreed to stay with us for the next two years, and together with him we can continue the successful work we began four years ago in order to reach the ambitious aims we have set for ourselves. We are sorry for Andrea Iannone, who at the end of the season will no longer be a part of the team. Andrea has carried out an important job in these years and has made a significant contribution to the development of the Ducati Desmosedici GP. For this reason we would like to thank him and we will provide him with our maximum commitment in the next rounds of the championship, in order to obtain the prestigious results that are for sure within his reach.”

The French Grand Prix failed to produce much satisfaction for the Ducati Team rider, who was forced to retire from the race following a crashes.
Dovizioso powered away well at the start and crossed the line on the opening lap in second place, behind the race leader Jorge Lorenzo. The Italian kept this position until lap 6, when he was passed by Iannone, who then crashed on the next lap. On lap 13, Dovizioso was overtaken by Rossi and he stayed in third place ahead of Marquez for the next two laps, before going down at Turn 7 in a crash that brought an end to his race.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team # 04) – DNF
“It’s a real pity because we had guessed the right strategy and managed to start the race well. I was in the group following Lorenzo and trying to understand where it was possible to try and attack Rossi, but at the entry to Turn 7 the front tyre lost grip and I found myself on the ground. After analyzing the telemetry, we saw that I had a lean angle that was only two degrees higher than the previous laps, but, even without taking this into account, the tyres were working quite well this weekend. Unfortunately it is a characteristic of theirs to not give any warning when they lose grip, and I crashed. Today’s performance gave us some important feedback for the future, because it proved that we can be quick, but not for the entire duration of the race. Now we have to work to be more consistent, and then go on to find pure performance.”

It will be a row 2 start for Andrea Dovizioso, who was fifth with a time of 1’32.587. The 30-year-old notched up his best time on the first lap of his second run in Q2.
In the morning’s free practice session, Dovizioso placed eighth in 1’33.013 and went through directly into Q2, which he tackled immediately after setting fifth place in the afternoon’s FP4 session.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team # 04) – 1’32.587 (5th)
“I am quite pleased with the way the day went. In the afternoon we were able to improve my feeling with the bike by making another small step forward and, even though maybe we are still missing a bit over race pace, tomorrow I should be in a position to fight for the podium. It’s a pity I was not able to get on the front row in qualifying, but unfortunately in my final attempt I went a bit too long at Turn 13 because when I changed gear, the bike had a sudden reaction and now we have to try and understand the reason for this.”

Andrea Dovizioso had a positive start to the French Grand Prix weekend campaign at Le Mans, ended up in fifth place at the end of the day.
On a sunny day, with spring-like temperatures, the MotoGP field went out onto the track at 9.55 am for the first FP1 session, and the factory Ducati rider immediately proved to have good pace, notching up the fourth quickest time.
In the afternoon run, all the riders improved their times considerably and, at the end of the session, and Dovi was on good form today, setting a time of 1’33.574 on the twenty-first and final lap of FP2 which earned him fifth place.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team # 04) – 1’33’.574 (5th)
“I am quite satisfied with this first day of track action, because we started off well and we were quite quick, even though maybe I had expected to go a bit quicker in the afternoon session. We also tried a new rear tyre, which modified my feeling with the bike a bit, but we need to continue to work on it to get to know it better. In any case I am convinced that we have room for improvement tomorrow and that our pace, apart from that of Lorenzo, is in line with the fastest riders.”

After completing a one-day private test at Mugello yesterday, Dovizioso and the Ducati Team have now arrived in France for the fifth round of the championship, to be held at the Le Mans circuit.
Andrea Dovizioso has often been able to produce good results at Le Mans, the Italian in fact always qualifying for the race on the front row in the last five years. Dovi has stepped onto the podium three times in the premier class, the last time twelve months ago when he placed third after qualifying second on the grid.
The Le Mans weekend gets underway on Friday morning with the first free practice session at 9.55 am, while the 28-lap race is scheduled for 2 pm on Sunday.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 11° (23 punti)
“With the new tyres, this year it is really difficult to know what a circuit is going to be like before we take to the track on Friday morning. Every race weekend is completely different to the previous one and so you have to start the work afresh. We have to understand how the tyres are going to work here on my Desmosedici GP, but I am confident because Le Mans is a track where I always manage to express my potential and hopefully we have the chance to be competitive and fight with the top guys.”