Andrea Dovizioso will start tomorrow’s Dutch Grand Prix at the Assen TT circuit from the second row of the grid after setting fourth quickest time in qualifying, just 79/1000ths of a second away from Marquez in pole position.
This morning the Ducati Team’s Italian rider was unable to improve on his time set yesterday and he ended up tenth overall in the combined standings, but in any case he went through into the afternoon’s all-important Q2 session.
The Dutch Grand Prix, which gets underway at 14.00 CET, will be held over a race distance of 26 laps.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04): 4th (1’32.870)
“A gap of 79 thousandths of a second from pole position is very small, but in some cases, like this one unfortunately, it can be very big! In any case I’m very happy because starting from the first two rows of the grid here at Assen is always very important, and also because I didn’t expect to do a lap of 1m32s on this circuit. The qualifying session was a bit strange, with all the riders waiting, but luckily I was at the back of the group and I had Rossi just ahead of me. I’m happy with the feeling with my bike: this morning the wind direction changed from yesterday and we struggled a bit, but in the afternoon we managed to improve. For tomorrow we’re set up pretty good and, even though there are several riders who have a good pace, we are confident we can do a good race.”

The Ducati Team rider finished inside the top 10 on the first day of practice for the Dutch TT, round 8 of the MotoGP World Championship which is being held this weekend at the Assen circuit.
At the end of the second free practice session, Andrea Dovizioso had set a time of 1’33.859 to take sixth place on his Desmosedici GP18.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04): 6th (1’33.859)
“Today was a positive first day: we started off well in the morning and this afternoon we made a further step forward. I’m pleasantly surprised because half-way through the session we lapped with a very good pace and to be honest I didn’t really expect that, seeing as it’s never easy here at Assen. There are a lot of fast riders out there, but we are fast as well and this was the main aim for today. Now we must continue to work on several aspects that can make all the difference in the race, while on my quick lap I could have done better but I encountered a lot of traffic.”

It was an unfortunate race for Andrea Dovizioso, who also started from the front row after going third-quickest in qualifying yesterday. The Italian crashed under braking for Turn 5 when he was in third and had to retire.
The next race of the MotoGP World Championship will be in the Netherlands, in two weeks time, at the Assen circuit for the Dutch TT from 29th June to 1st July.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – DNF
“The crash was my fault because I was pushing hard because I didn’t want to lose contact with Jorge and Marc. Unfortunately, in the race there wasn’t as much grip as in the morning and I wasn’t able to ride in the same way. I didn’t expect that, I came into the turn too quickly and crashed under braking. A real pity because once again here we were fast and we could have scored a lot of points, but now we can only look ahead because we know we are fast everywhere, and even though we still have to improve several aspects, we are always fighting for the win. We’ll start to think about the championship when the time comes, but for the moment we’re only thinking about winning races.”

Third place in qualifying went to Andrea Dovizioso, who this morning topped the timesheets in FP3. The Italian rider, who will start from the front row together with his team-mate and Marc Marquez, went out on track with the ‘prancing horse’ stem of Francesco Baracca on the front and rear fairing of his Desmosedici GP. This is in memory of the Italian First World War flying ace, who hailed from the same region as Dovizioso (Baracca was born in Lugo di Romagna, also like famed Ducati engineer Fabio Taglioni) and who was killed in action exactly 100 years ago.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04): 3rd (1’38.923)
“Today’s qualifying went very well and I’m very happy with a front-row position. It was important to start from the first two rows here at Montmeló because tomorrow in the race we will have to try and manage the tyres well. Jorge has been very quick since yesterday, but we’ve been able to improve after every session: this was very important and we did it. I came to qualifying with a good feeling and even though I made a small mistake at Turn 10, in the end I was able to set a very good lap time. I’m very satisfied because we’ve worked well this weekend and even though we know that it will be difficult to manage the tyres for the entire race, all the riders will have the same problem, and we’re sure we can play our cards.”

Andrea Dovizioso, who started from the third row, finished second at the Italian GP. The Italian crossed the line at the end of the opening lap in fifth place and then got close to Lorenzo on lap 7, but he was unable to attack his team-mate and on the last lap had to defend the runner-up slot from Rossi, who was third at the chequered flag.
Thanks to this result, Dovizioso has moved up into fourth place in the standings with 66 points.
The MotoGP World Championship will be back in action again in two weeks’ time at Montmeló, on the outskirts of Barcelona, for the Catalan GP scheduled for 15th to 17th June.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 2nd
“To tell the truth I expected more than a second place today, but in the end we found that the conditions were hotter in the race than yesterday and so we had a few doubts about the choice of front tyre. Rossi and I made a cautionary selection, opting to fit the harder tyre, but unfortunately it didn’t work well. Valentino almost crashed a couple of times in front of me and when I tried to push to catch Jorge, I wasn’t fast enough in corner entry and as a result through the corners as well. In addition I used up the rear tyre and at the end of the race I also had to manage this problem. In any case we scored a good second place and reduced the gap to Marquez in the standings. I want to congratulate Jorge, who did a superb race and was very good and precise in managing the tyres to perfection.”

Seventh quickest time and a row 3 start went to Andrea Dovizioso (1’46.500). the Italian rider had finished the morning’s FP3 session with the tenth time and he also went through directly into Q2.
The Italian Grand Prix, held over a distance of 23 laps, will get underway tomorrow afternoon at 14.00 CET.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 7th (1’46.500)
“I’m satisfied with today: yesterday unfortunately we didn’t manage to work well and as a result this morning we started behind quite a lot. In the end however we were able to get inside the top 10 and go through directly into Q2, and this afternoon we confirmed we have a good pace with the soft used tyres. We’re all rather on the limit and tomorrow I expect a race in a group, but I know that we are very fast. Also in qualifying I did a good lap, and even though I’m only seventh on the grid, I believe I have a good pace and I can’t wait to do the race.”