The Mission Winnow Ducati rider resumed action today at Mugello Circuit for the opening day of the Italian Grand Prix, sixth round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship and home race for the Italian manufacturer. In two free-practice sessions, Andrea Dovizioso worked as usual on the race setup, posting theleventh (+0.615) time in a classification characterized by particularly narrow gaps, with 18 riders within less than one second.
Dovizioso made steps forward despite still not being completely satisfied with the feeling on the bike, taking almost one second off his best time in the afternoon with a 1:47.347.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Mission Winnow Ducati) – 1:47.347 (11th)
“All in all, we’re actually not that far. I still haven’t found the best feeling with my Desmosedici GP, even though we’re quite competitive in terms of race pace. During FP2 we tried and compared two quite different setups, both with positives and negatives, so now we need to be smart putting together all the data to find the best possible compromise. As we were expecting, compared with recent years, there are more fast riders who can fight at the top and some of our advantages perhaps are not that obvious anymore, but we’ve just started and I’m confident that working methodically, as we always do, we’ll be in the mix both during qualifying and the race.”

The Mission Winnow Ducati rider is ready to resume action at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello for the Italian Grand Prix, the sixth round in the 2019 MotoGP calendar and home race for both him and the Borgo Panigale factory. Andrea Dovizioso who conquered a fantastic second place at Le Mans (France) is ready and determined to make the most of the “home court” advantage to be protagonist among the rolling hills of the iconic Tuscan track, where he will be able to count on the support of the many ducatisti fans expected during the weekend and gathered, as usual, at the Ducati Grandstands located by the Correntaio corner.
Dovizioso, who will celebrate his 300th GP start at Mugello, is currently second in the championship, just 8 points behind provisional leader Márquez. Dovizioso won the Italian GP in 2017, was second last year, and took two more podiums in top class at Mugello.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Mission Winnow Ducati) – 2nd (87 points)
“To arrive at Mugello after a result such as the one we achieved at Le Mans, with three Ducati in the top four positions, is certainly positive even though we aim for more. This is our home race and I believe we can be competitive and fast, so our goal is first of all to step on the podium once again. As we’ve seen in these first races, this year our rivals are also particularly fast, so it’s difficult to make predictions. As for us, we will not settle for what we achieved so far and we’ll try our best, analyzing the data, to keep working and understand where we can make further improvements. I hope the weather is good, because I have great expectations for this round.”

The Ducati Team rider achieved a great result at Le Mans, home of the French GP, where he conquered second place on the finish line.
Despite getting off to a blistering start, Dovizioso was involved in a contact coming out of the second corner during the first lap and was forced to recover positions, but was able to seize second place half-way through the race and defend it until the checkered flag.
Dovizioso and Petrucci then enjoyed a spectacular and clean fight for second position, crossing trajectories several times in the final phases until the checkered flag. Dovizioso thus seized his second podium with Ducati at Le Mans after finishing third in 2015.
After five rounds, Dovizioso is second in the Rider standings with 87 points – just eight points shy of the provisional lead.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 2nd
“I’m happy with my result because the conditions have been really tricky here all weekend and, nonetheless, we managed to seize second position in both the race and the championship. That said, we need to stay focused and try to make further improvements if we want to fight with Márquez until the end. I couldn’t keep his pace until the checkered flag because the rear tyre dropped a bit too much, and in the final laps I also had to fend off Danilo’s comeback. It was a good fight, and I’m not surprised by his speed, as I know him well. We scored the best possible result and the championship is still open. I can’t wait to race again in two weeks’ time at Mugello, a track we know quite well and on which we achieved important results in the recent past.”

The qualifying session of the French GP, held in particularly difficult conditions due to the intermittent rain that hit Le Mans since early morning, saw Andrea Dovizioso securing second row in fourth position after clocking a personal best of 1:41.552.
The Ducati factory rider gained direct access to Q2 thanks to the lap time posted yesterday in dry conditions. Dovizioso was one of the few riders capable of improving his lap times in the second and last stint despite progressively worse track conditions.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 1:41.552 (4th)
“I’m quite happy with fourth position on the grid because, given the conditions out there today, it was easier to make mistakes than to be fast. It was really difficult to find the right feeling on the bike, especially in the second part of the session. We bet our chips on that, and we were able to improve our lap time, but unfortunately the track was faster in the opening minutes. We couldn’t do many laps in properly wet conditions, so we still have a few question marks regarding tomorrow, but I hope to have a dry track since the morning warm-up session in order to be able to work on some details that could make a big difference during the race. There are many riders with a strong, similar pace so anything can happen tomorrow, but for sure we have the potential to be competitive.”

The Ducati Team rider resumed track action today at Le Mans (France) for the fifth round of the 2019 MotoGP Championship. Andrea Dovizioso took fifth position in the combined time sheets at the end of Friday’s free-practice.
Second in the morning session, Dovizioso further improved his lap times by about four tenths of a second in FP2, posting a personal best of 1:31.736, 0.308 seconds behind the provisional leader.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 1:31.736 (5th)
“We’ve just started the weekend, but my sensations on the bike are quite good. Compared to last year, however, there are more competitive riders so there’s quite a pack fighting for top positions, but we’re part of that. We still need to improve some details to be able to keep the pace we have in mind. We tried different setups and evaluated several tyre options, making a step forward during FP2, but we still have room for improvement and we’ll need to be smart and put together all the data we gathered to be even more competitive tomorrow and prepare for the race in the best possible way.”

After finishing the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez in fourth position, the Ducati Team rider is ready to take it back to the track at Le Mans (France) for the fifth round of the MotoGP World Championship. Andrea Dovizioso – who already finished on the podium at Le Mans with Ducati in 2015 (3rd) and was particularly competitive last year before crashing out of the race while in the lead – is also keen to make the most of the French track’s characteristics to be a protagonist during the weekend and rewrite the statistics. For the occasion, the factory Desmosedici GPs will feature a brand-new livery with Dovizioso and Petrucci’s personalized logos on the fairings. Heading into round five, Dovizioso is third in the Riders standings with 67 points, only 3 points behind provisional leader Márquez.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 3rd (67 points)
“At Le Mans we should be more competitive than in the last round, at least on paper, even though last year in France the race didn’t go as planned. Weather conditions always play a key role at Le Mans, and it’s crucial to be able to manage this variable to your advantage. At any rate, I expect to have many fast rivals out there, so it’ll be important to start off on the right foot since the very first session and prepare ourselves as well as possible for the race. The Desmosedici GP has some characteristics that we can take advantage of in France, but we need to iron out some details to maximize our potential and play our cards right on Sunday, which is when points are given. I’m confident we can ride a strong race.”

For one weekend, Italian motorcycle star Andrea Dovizioso (33 years old) is going to switch from his Ducati Desmosedici GP into the cockpit of an Audi RS 5 DTM and will will contest the two DTM races at Misano (Italy) on June 8 and 9.
The MotoGP star gathered initial experiences in the Audi RS 5 DTM at Audi’s Competence Center Motorsport in Neuburg a. d. Donau on Tuesday following the DTM season opener. Before his DTM debut the Ducati factory rider will have the opportunity to test in the more than 610-hp Class 1 race car at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli on May 22/23.
At Misano, Dovizioso will race in the WRT Team Audi Sport customer team replacing Pietro Fittipaldi. The Brazilian, who in his DTM debut at Hockenheim instantly scored a point and set a new DTM lap record, will have to skip Misano due to a calendar conflict with the Formula One Grand Prix in Canada.

“I love cars and I feel lucky to be able to race with the Audi RS 5 DTM,” says Andrea Dovizioso. “It’s tough to find the time to prepare for it during the MotoGP season but I am really looking forward to compete in such a high-level context such as the DTM. The car is amazing, but it’s a different challenge compared with my Desmosedici GP and I need to get prepared, so I did many laps in the simulator before stepping into it for the first time. Misano is a special track for every Italian driver and the place where I scored an incredible win last year so I’m very excited and thankful for this opportunity.”

Andrea Dovizioso concluded the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez, home of fourth round of the 2019 MotoGP calendar, in fourth position. The Mission Winnow Ducati rider saved his best for the latter phases of the race, trying to preserve the tyres over the 25-lap distance given also the higher temperatures of the tarmac (42 degrees) compared with yesterday, and progressively cut the gap from the podium in the final laps but couldn’t completely erase it before the checkered flag.
Opting for hard tyres on the front and rear, Dovizioso initially rode in fifth position, then upped the pace within 10 laps to go. Towards the end, he tried to move past Viñales, posting his personal best time in the penultimate lap to finish only three tenths of a second off the podium.
After four rounds, Dovizioso is third in the Riders standings with 67 points – only 3 behind the provisional leader.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Mission Winnow Ducati) – 4th
“If we consider the issues we’ve always had in the past at Jerez, we can be satisfied with both our pace and the gap from the front at the end of the race. That said, it’s a pity we couldn’t step on the podium, which was our goal. The race was faster than what we expected, and I lost too much ground at the start. In the final phases, I took quite a few risks to cut the gap from Viñales, but I was still losing too much ground in the faster corners to be able to attack him under braking. We knew that on fast-flowing tracks such as this one we would have struggled a bit more. We need to improve our corner speed, we have done that to some extent already and we’re not far from our rivals, so tomorrow we’ll keep working in this direction.”

With milder temperatures compared with yesterday – about 20 degrees in the air and 30 degrees on the tarmac – Andrea Dovizioso gained direct access to the second and decisive qualifying session during FP3 in the morning and continued to work on race pace with positive feedback in FP4, then finally focused on a single, flying lap with a soft rear tyre.
In a Q2 characterized by extremely narrow gaps – with the first 10 riders separated by only half a second – Dovizioso seized second row with the fourth best time in 1:37.018.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Mission Winnow Ducati) – 4th (1:37.018)
“I’m happy because we’ve been working really well up to this point, improving in each session. My feeling with the bike is good and even during qualifying, which is not usually my strongest suit, I managed to post a competitive time despite not doing a perfect lap. We’re ready to put up a challenge during the race tomorrow, even though Márquez still represents a question mark and weather conditions, in terms of temperatures, can play a significant role. For sure my confidence is higher than last year here. We started off on the right foot and we’ve always been among the frontrunners, but we know that the race will be a different story. Tomorrow we’ll have to stay focused to finalize the good work done up to this point.”

In Friday’s free-practice sessions, characterized by clear skies and high temperatures (with about 25 degrees in the air and 45 degrees on the tarmac), Danilo Petrucci and Andrea Dovizioso enjoyed a positive start to their weekend as they began to work on the setup of the Desmosedici GP 19 ahead of Sunday’s race, posting the third time in the combined rankings.
After finishing FP1 only two tenths of a second behind the provisional best time, Dovizioso then further improved his lap times in the afternoon session to finish only 97 thousandths of a second behind his teammate with a personal best of 1:38.006, which granted him third position in the combined rankings.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Mission Winnow Ducati) – 3rd (1:38.006)
“It’s been a positive opening day, especially in terms of the pace we managed to keep with used tyres and high temperatures, not simply in terms of our overall position. We managed to improve the feeling with the bike as the day went on, and we’re among the frontrunners in terms of rhythm, but I still think Márquez has a small advantage. The standings may not show the whole picture, and anyway track conditions are supposed to further improve in FP3, so we’ll need to keep pushing to gain direct access to Q2 because I expect very narrow gaps. We have some room for improvement in the long, fast corners, where the wind also comes into play, and we’re still trying to find the limit with the new tarmac, as grip levels may change come race time. We need to stay focused.”