Andrea Dovizioso was classified sixth in the GP of the Americas, the third round of the MotoGP World Championship which was held today at COTA, the Texan circuit on the outskirts of Austin.
Started from row 3 with seventh-quickest time in qualifying, crossed the line at the end of the opening lap in eighth place and then passed Lorenzo and moved up to sixth. The Italian rider administered the race to bring his Desmosedici GP machine home in the same position at the chequered flag.
The Italian rider now lies fourth in the overall standings with 30 points.
The MotoGP World Championship will be back in action on the weekend of 5-7 May at Jerez de la Frontera, for the first European round of the 2017 season.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 6th
“This was a difficult weekend and also in the race we never had the pace that we had hoped for. Pity, because I expected more from this GP, but the result confirms that unfortunately we still have a lot more work to do in order to resolve certain limits of our bike and to be able to stay up there ahead with our rivals at every circuit.”

The Ducati Team rider will start tomorrow’s GP of the Americas, held at the modern Texan circuit on the outskirts of Austin, from the third row of the grid.
At the end of this afternoon’s qualifying session, was classified in seventh with a time of 2’04.431.
In the morning the MotoGP riders went out on track under dark skies and with a temperature of 16°, more than 10 degrees lower than yesterday. The session was characterized by a high number of crashes, including one apiece for the Ducati Team rider, but luckily he came away unscathed.
In the end Dovizioso wasn’t able to improve the time he set yesterday in FP2, but still he remained within the first 10 riders so he could go directly in Q2.
The 21-lap GP of the Americas is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm local time (21.00 CET).

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 2’04.431 (7th)
“Once again today we found strange conditions, but in the end I’m happy with the way the afternoon went. Despite a couple of little problems, we did however manage to do a run at the same time as the race and we were able to improve. I don’t think it will be possible to fight for the win tomorrow, but for sure we can go for a good result. Unfortunately in qualifying on my second run I made a few mistakes and was not able to set the time that I could have done. Pity about seventh place on the grid, but in my opinion tomorrow we can do a good race.”

Despite cloudy skies in the morning, the first two practice sessions were held on a dry track and FP1 concluded with Dovizioso third after the 45-minute run.

In the early afternoon the MotoGP riders again went out on track for 45 minutes and everyone was able to improve the times set in the morning: Dovizioso finished the session with a best lap of 2’04.830, which put him in sixth place, while Lorenzo finished in eleventh place with a time of 2’05.282.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 2’04.830 (6th)
“It was a bit of an unusual day because we found a track that was quite different from last year. There are a lot of dips in it and so everything became rather complicated: it’s not easy to find the right set-up because there isn’t much grip, you can’t push very hard on the front, and in any case we must also consider tyre wear for the race. All in all, despite the overall feeling not being that great, we are not bad at all for pace. At this moment there is no doubt that Viñales and Marquez have a lot more pace, but after them we are all in there together. Tomorrow the temperature should be a bit lower than today, and we will try and take advantage of the situation and work with the race in mind.”

After the second round of the season, which was held ten days ago in Argentina, the MotoGP teams and riders are now arriving in the USA, for the next event on Texan soil at the Circuit of The Americas, on the outskirts of Austin.
Andrea DovizIoso, determined to put behind him the disappointment of Termas de Río Hondo, in Texas he will find a track where Ducati has always done well in recent years.
In the four editions of the GP of the Americas held so far, Dovizioso has scored a seventh place in 2013, a third place in 2014 and an excellent runner-up slot in 2015, while last year he was hit by the bike of Dani Pedrosa at the start of lap 7, while in third place, and had to retire.
The Austin weekend gets underway on Friday morning with the first free practice session at 9.55 am local time (16.55 CET) while the 21-lap race is scheduled for Sunday at 2 pm local time (21.00 CET).

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 3rd (20 points)
“I was clearly very disappointed after the race in Argentina but now, after a few days’ vacation, I am fully focused on the race in Texas. The Circuit of the Americas is a fantastic track, one of the best on the calendar, and it has totally different characteristics to the previous two circuits in Qatar and Argentina. I like racing a lot at Austin, also because there is a really good atmosphere, both in the circuit and downtown, and I’m up for the battle. It will be a good opportunity to put things right after Termas and I’m convinced that we can be really competitive on this track.”

Unfortunate Argentina GP for Dovizioso, who was forced to retire from the Argentina Grand Prix, the third round of the MotoGP World Championship, which was held today at the Termas de Río Hondo circuit.
Andrea Dovizioso, who also got away well from the fifth row, crossed the line at the end of lap 1 in ninth place and was then involved in a battling group made up of Bautista, Petrucci, Pedrosa and Zarco until lap 15. The Italian, who at the time was lying in seventh place, was hit by the bike of Aleix Espargarò, who crashed at turn 5 and was also forced to retire.
The next round will be held in two weeks at Austin (Texas) from 21-23 April.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – DNF
“This was a strange race because, even though I actually had very little grip and I was not particularly competitive, I managed to recover well in the early stages and gain some positions. When I got involved in the fight with Danilo, who always brakes on the limit, I tried to find the right moment to pass him, but unfortunately at turn 5 I was hit by Aleix Espargarò’s bike and crashed out. Here in Argentina I don’t have any luck at all, seeing as today I was taken out yet again, and I’m bitterly disappointed because being able to bring home a probably fifth place, in such a difficult weekend, would have been very important.”

Today was a difficult day at Termas de Río Hondo for the Italian Ducati Team rider. At the end of today’s two scheduled free practice sessions at the Argentinean circuit, Andrea Dovizioso was classified in fourteenth place.
The Italian rider set seventh quickest time in the morning’s FP1 run, but in the afternoon session, despite improving by more than three-tenths of a second, Dovizioso had to settle for fourteenth overall in the day’s standings.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1’40.399 (14th)
“This afternoon’s session was a bit strange: there were a few aspects of the bike that in my opinion didn’t work well and so I was not able to lap with any sort of continuity during the session. I didn’t have a good rhythm and we weren’t entirely sorted regarding the electronics, and it was a real pity to be outside the top 10 because tomorrow it might rain.”

Following an excellent second place in the opening round of the season in Qatar, Andrea Dovizioso is gearing up to tackle the second event in the MotoGP World Championship at the Termas de Río Hondo circuit in the northern part of Argentina, just over one hour’s flying time from the capital Buenos Aires.
This will be the thirteenth edition of the Argentina GP, and the fourth to be held on this new circuit. Andrea Dovizioso scored his best result here in 2015, when he finished the race in second place, but the Ducati Team’s Italian rider also battled for the podium right down to the final lap in 2016.
The Termas de Río Hondo weekend gets underway on Friday morning with the first free practice session at 9.55 am (14.55 CET), while the 25-lap race is scheduled for Sunday at 4 pm local time (21.00 CET).

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 2nd (20 points)
“This track is really particular: the conditions change a lot between Friday, when the track is very dirty, and Sunday, and usually we always find the best conditions in the race, because the track improves a lot after each session. In any case Termas is a good track and we have always gone well here. We will tackle the weekend in Argentina pretty excited following the good result in Qatar and after last Wednesday’s test at Jerez, which proved to be quite positive and which allowed us to get some good work done.”