The Dutch Grand Prix at the historic TT Circuit of Assen (Netherlands), eighth round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship, saw Andrea Dovizioso claim fourth position on the finish line. The Ducati Team rider, starting from fourth row, was quick off the blocks at the start and successfully climbed to the margins of the top five within just four laps.
In the second half of the race, Dovizioso engaged in a thrilling battle with his team mate Petrucci with Mir and Morbidelli to swap positions several times. In a sprint finish, Dovizioso was able to defende his fourth position under the checkered flag.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 4th
“Looking at the positives, we managed to score the best possible result for us today. After a tricky qualifying session and the start from fourth row, it would have been easy to make mistakes and get involved in risky situations in the chasing group, but we were able to quickly recover positions and take home some important points. Unfortunately, on tracks such as this one our limitations are a bit more evident and everything becomes more difficult. The gap on the finish line can’t make us happy, so we need to keep working hard to make further progress in the areas in which we struggle the most, and we’ll try to do that starting from next weekend at Sachsenring.”

Despite the strong start in yesterday’s sessions and the good pace shown in race configuration during today’s free-practice, the radical change of weather conditions – with 30 degrees in the atmosphere and more than 50 on the tarmac – hindered the flying-lap performance of Andrea Dovizioso, who will start tomorrow’s race in eleventh position.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 1:33.692 (11th)
“It’s been a bit of a strange day, with really high temperatures. After starting off on the right foot in free practice, unfortunately we couldn’t be as competitive during qualifying. It’s a shame because starting from fourth row complicates our plans a bit, but I wasn’t able to complete a ‘clean’ lap. We’re more competitive in terms of pace, we still have to improve but I believe we can ride a solid race. A lot will depend on what weather conditions we’ll find tomorrow. At any rate, we won’t give up and we’ll try to be fast in any condition.”

At the end of the first two free-practice sessions, held in progressively warmer weather conditions with temperatures reaching about 25 degrees in the atmosphere and 45 on the tarmac, Andrea Dovizioso is fourth in 1:33.223.
Dovizioso worked on the pace ahead of Sunday’s race, trying several tyre options and making further evaluations, with positive feedback, on the technical upgrades introduced in the post-race tests at Montmeló. Dovizioso also made strides, taking 1.5 seconds off his best lap time during FP2.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 1:33.223 (4th)
“I’m quite satisfied with this opening day because we have made some small improvements compared with 2018, even though we were competitive and stayed constantly at the front also then. We’re fast and, despite losing some ground in changes of direction and in the fast corners, we can still post quick lap times. For sure we’ve started off on the right foot but it’s still early to make any predictions. Tyre wear proved to be the decisive factor last year, and we’ll focus on that. We’re competitive, but we need to make further improvements.”

Less than two weeks after the Grand Prix of Catalunya – where Andrea Dovizioso was involved in a crash that forced him to retire – the Ducati Team rider is ready to resume action at Assen (Netherlands) for the eighth round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship.
Going into round eight, Dovizioso is second in the Riders standings, 37 points shy of the lead, and his goal is to make the most of the technical upgrades tested after the race at Montmeló to score as many points as possible and cut the gap in the rankings.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 2nd (103 points)
“There’s no time to linger on the points lost at Barcelona, we need to tackle each race working as hard as we’ve done until now. I believe we are showing great competitiveness and, even though there are always areas to improve, we have proven our speed. Assen isn’t the most favorable track for our bike and weather conditions always play a fundamental role there, but at any rate we’ve shown we’re capable of progressively improving during the course of a weekend even on tricky circuits. We need to stay calm and focused, taking it one race at a time. The Championship has still a long way to go.”

The Grand Prix of Catalunya, seventh round in the 2019 MotoGP World Championship, turned into an unlucky affair for for Andrea Dovizioso who was involved in a crash during the second lap that forced him to retire while he was in second position. After a blistering start from P5 on the grid, Dovizioso took the lead entering turn 1 to set the pace at the front within a group of six riders. Unfortunately, the Italian was hit by Lorenzo’s bike during the second lap while entering turn 10, an accident that involved four riders in total and forced them all to retire.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Mission Winnow Ducati) – DNF
“After a great start, I took the lead and I was in a strategic position to ride the race we had planned. The rear tyre still wasn’t perfectly heated up so I wasn’t pushing the pace yet but, considering how the race eventually unfolded and the rhythm shown by other riders, I believe we could have been contenders for sure. I prefer not to comment about the incident, but the race still was entirely up for grabs at that point. Tomorrow we have another important test to keep improving our base, and we’ll try to make the most of it to bounce back immediately at Assen.”

The Mission Winnow Ducati team resumed action today at Montmeló (Spain) for the qualifying session of the Grand Prix of Catalunya, the seventh round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship. In sunny weather conditions – with 25 degrees in the atmosphere and almost 50 on the tarmac – Andrea Dovizioso seized second row on the starting grid for tomorrow’s race in sixth position. 

Dovizioso gained direct access to Q2 after finishing FP3 in sixth position with only four tenths of a second separating the top ten riders. Despite the increasing track temperatures and, consequently, lower grip levels, Dovizioso basically equalled his personal best – set in the morning during FP3 – in the second and decisive qualifying session to post a 1:39.777, only 0.297 seconds slower than the pole position time.

*UPDATE: due to a three-position grid penalty inflicted to Maverick Viñales for “irresponsible riding” during Q2, Andrea Dovizioso will start tomorrow’s race from fifth position.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Mission Winnow Ducati) – 1:39.777 (5th)
“I’m happy with our starting position because today the track conditions were particularly tricky in terms of grip and it was really easy to make mistakes, so to start tomorrow’s race from the top two rows is OK. The race pace remains to be seen because grip is really low, as we can infer from the slower lap times compared with the past. We had another example also in FP4, during which the riders tried practically every possible combination of tyres, which means there are still questions to be answered. We worked well so far and we are in the front group, but gaps are really narrow and it’s difficult to gauge the potential of our rivals. We’re competitive but we’ll need to be very smart tomorrow and manage the race without making mistakes.”

The Mission Winnow Ducati rider resumed track activity today at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló (Spain), home of the seventh round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship, for the opening day of free practice ahead of Sunday’s race. Mild weather conditions – with approximately 25 degrees in the atmosphere and 40 on the tarmac – characterized Friday’s sessions, during which Andrea Dovizioso worked on the race setup, seizing second (+0.281) position in the provisional time sheets, where the top 19 riders sit within less than one second.
After posting the fourth-fastest time in the morning, Dovizioso improved his lap time by circa seven tenths of a second in FP2 to finish in 1:40.360.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Mission Winnow Ducati) – 1:40.360 (2nd)
“I’m satisfied with our performance in this first day of practice, I had a good feeling with the bike and we’ve been fast. As it often happened here in the past, grip is very low and the track’s layout makes tyre management particularly difficult, especially considering the higher temperatures forecast for the rest of the weekend. However, I believe everyone is struggling under this aspect. We have work left to do ahead of the race: we’re still evaluating the different tyre compounds available and we need to improve the front-end feeling, but my sensations are good and so are the lap times, so I’m confident.”

The Mission Winnow Ducati rider is ready to take it back to the track at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló (Spain) for the seventh round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship.
Dovizioso, who competed in his 300th race in the world championship at Mugello, is currently second in the championship, just 12 points behind provisional leader Márquez, and is ready to battle on the Catalan track.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Mission Winnow Ducati) – 2nd (103 points)
“Ducati won the last two GPs at the Montmeló track, and I’m confident we’ll be competitive in the race this weekend as well, even though track temperatures will be a decisive factor. Weather forecast says it will be hot, so both the performance and the correct management of the tyres will make the difference. We’re going through a crucial phase of the season and we need to keep scoring as many points as possible. We’re working well, we’ve been on the podium twice in a row but we need to keep improving our corner speed to be competitive in all kinds of circuits.”

Great start for Dovizioso, who entered turn 1 in third position from third row and who immediately joined the leading group. Along with his team mate Petrucci, he exchanged overtaking moves repeatedly and towards the end, with only four riders left fighting for the victory, Dovizioso lost positions as he had to pick up the bike out to avoid contact and finished third.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Mission Winnow Ducati) – 3rd
“It’s been a really exciting race, as it’s often the case here at Mugello. Until the very last lap, everything went to plan. I got off to a great start and I put myself in a good position to manage the tyres, staying always within the top three despite the many overtakes in the leading group. My plan was to seize the lead at the beginning of the last lap, but I had to pick up the bike out of turn one to avoid contact and I lost positions and points. I’m a bit disappointed because of that, but also very happy for Danilo, who really deserved this win. It would have been better to score a one-two finish, but Márquez was very competitive also here. As for us, we struggled a bit early on in the weekend but once again we managed to stay in contention until the very end during the race. We want more and we’ll keep working to improve.”

The Mission Winnow Ducati rider resumed action today at Mugello Circuit for the Italian Gran Prix qualifiers. In sunny conditions, with 26 degrees in the atmosphere and almost 50 on the tarmac, Andrea Dovizioso will start from third row in ninth position with a personal best of 1:46.293.
Dovizioso made strides after facing some issues in the morning, progressively posting quicker lap times and improving the feeling with the Desmosedici GP to finish Q1 in first position before taking ninth place on the grid in the final session.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Mission Winnow Ducati) – 1:46.293 (9th)
“We’re competitive in terms of race pace but unfortunately today we struggled on the single lap, which slightly complicated our plans but also helped us understand how to improve the setup of my Desmosedici GP during FP4, as shown by the good lap time posted to get through Q1. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to push to the limit in Q2 because of the traffic, which made it very difficult to put a clean lap together even though second row was within our reach. Tomorrow we’ll have to recover positions and keep a strong pace from the very start. Given the track conditions, it’ll be crucial to pick the right tyres for the race, then we’ll be able to fight.”