Ducati Team factory rider Andrea Dovizioso took a second-place finish in today’s Aragon Grand Prix after a thrilling battle with the eventual race winner Marc Marquez.
Powering away well from the front row, the Italian rider emerged from the first-corner melee in the lead and he stayed there until lap 13, always followed closely by his Honda rival, who then passed him on the next lap. After grabbing back the lead on lap 16, Andrea tried his best to defend himself from Marquez but he was eventually passed by the Spanish rider three laps from the end and he crossed the line just 0.648s behind the winner.
The championship positions remain unchanged, with Dovizioso second at 72 points from the leader Marc Marquez.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 2nd
“Today’s race went very well, considering the fact that we usually struggle quite a lot at Aragon but instead this time we fought for the win right until the final lap. As a result, we must be happy because this is a further demonstration of the improvements that we are making. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to fight against Marquez until the very end, because there were some corners where I was going strongly but in other parts of the circuit I was slower so I didn’t have many cards to play. I had hoped he was going to be in trouble in the last few laps but instead at that moment he was faster than me and this made all the difference.”

The factory Ducati Team rider powered to the second position on the grid in this afternoon’s qualifying session for the Aragon Grand Prix. At the end of an exciting 15-minute run, Andrea Dovizioso set the second faste time at just 14 thousandths from the top.
Today’s result was the sixth successive front row for the Ducati Team since the Sachsenring, the third successive pole position for Jorge Lorenzo, and also the second 1-2 in qualifying for the factory Ducati riders in 2018 after Silverstone.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 2nd (1’46.895)
“The qualifying session went well, because the important thing was to get onto the front row, which we did. With the times so close together, it would have been so easy to find yourself on the second row in an instant! The problem is that in the second exit we found ourselves all bunched together and in these conditions it’s very difficult to find room. I managed to find a gap and I was quite quick, but I had to overtake Bautista and I lost a bit of time. In spite of this, I did a really good lap time and so I’m very happy, also because the bike is working really well and for the race we’ve got a great pace. Tomorrow I think I can fight for the win, but the tyre wear will make all the difference so we’ll have to be good at managing the situation and do the right strategy in the race.”

The Aragon GP weekend got off to a positive start for the factory Ducati Team rider, third on day 1 at the MotorLand track in Spain.
In the morning’s Free Practice 1, Dovizioso had set the quickest time of the session, while in the afternoon nearly all the riders were able to improve their times towards the end of the second session and Andrea Dovizioso was third quickest with a lap of 1’47.835.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 3rd – 1’47.835
“Today has been very positive, because we were able to start off the day by immediately regaining the good feeling we had achieved in the test in August, and so now we’ve already got some pretty clear ideas about the tyres and the set-up. This will enable us to work on the details tomorrow because I think that the conditions will improve a bit and so we’ll be able to understand how the tyres will really behave. As always we must try and be quick while consuming the tyres as little as possible: in every track this is the characteristic, but here at Aragón it’s even more important. At the moment there are three of us who have a very similar pace, but it won’t be enough and so tomorrow we’ll have to improve a bit more.”

Andrea Dovizioso dominated the San Marino GP, round 13 of the MotoGP World Championship, which was held today at the Misano circuit in Italy. At his home race, the rider from Forlì started from row 2, then overtook his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo to move into the lead on the sixth lap. He held the position right until the end of the race, taking the chequered flag 2.8 seconds ahead of Marquez.
Thanks to today’s win, Andrea Dovizioso moves up to second place in the Riders’ standings with 154 points, 67 from Marquez.
The next MotoGP round is the Aragón GP, scheduled to take place on 21-23 September at the Motorland Aragón circuit on the outskirts of Alcañiz.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 1st
“I wanted this win so badly, because here at Misano Ducati and I have always struggled in recent years. In the test in August however we realized that we had made an important step forward and we could be competitive in the race. We worked really well during the weekend, in very different conditions, but both Jorge and Marc are very strong here so to win I had to do a perfect race. I started off in the right frame of mind, fully focussed on the race strategy, and when I took the lead, I pulled out a small advantage and then managed the situation until the finish. I’m really pleased, because winning here at Misano was very important for Ducati but also for me. Years ago it seemed like an impossible dream, but now we’ve done it and it fills me with so much satisfaction.”

A second row start goes to Andrea Dovizioso, who finished fourth at the end of Q2 with a time of 1’32.003 at Misano where the San Marino GP, which will be held over a distance of 27 laps, gets underway tomorrow at 14.00 CET.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 4th (1’32.003)
“All in all, it was a very positive day, both this morning and in the afternoon. Unfortunately, in qualifying I was unable to do a perfect lap because I just wasn’t smooth enough. Pity, because the bike was fast and so we could have done better. For tomorrow we have a good race pace and we are in the leading group. As so often happens, it’ll be the small details that make all the difference because there are at least four or five riders who can fight for the podium and the win tomorrow.”