After a semi-wet warm-up session due to scattered rain showers overnight and early in the morning, the race was held in completely dry conditions with temperatures around 20 degrees in the atmosphere and 30 on the tarmac. Starting from 13th position after a difficult qualifying session, Andrea Dovizioso made a strong comeback and a clean battle with his team mate Petrucci and manufacturer mate Miller he finished in fifth place.
After nine rounds, Dovizioso holds second position in the Riders standings with 127 points.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 5th
“Today we had another exciting battle with Danilo for almost the entire race and claimed fifth position in a sprint to the finish line to bring home important points in one of the most difficult tracks for us, which is undoubtedly positive. However, we couldn’t have done more during the race and the gap shows how we still need to improve under some aspects to be able to fight at the front in each situation. We’re still second in the championship despite the bad luck we had in Barcelona and the issues we encountered in the last couple of races. For sure we won’t give up and we’ll try to put this short break to good use and find some new solutions to be more competitive, starting from next round at Brno.”

Andrea Dovizioso came back in action today near Chemnitz (Germany) at Sachsenring for the German Grand Prix qualifiers. After working on race pace with a focus on tyre wear in Friday’s free practice sessions, characterized by narrow gaps and concluded within the top ten, the rider from Forlì and his team struggled a bit more than expected during qualifying, finishing thirteenth on the grid. After posting the 14th time in FP3, Dovizioso was forced to participate in Q1, and with a personal best of 1:21.105, he missed access to Q2 by only 3 thousandths of a second.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 1:21.105 (13th)
“Today we managed to improve the feeling with the bike and the overall speed, but unfortunately not enough to gain access to Q2. It’s been a complicated day, we worked hard as usual but on this track unfortunately we struggle more than in others. To start from fifth row doesn’t mirror our potential but we simply need to pull ourselves up and try to get the best possible start and recover as many positions as we can. Weather conditions could mix things up a bit, in any case we surely won’t give up.”

At the end of Friday’s free practice sessions, held in partially sunny weather – with temperatures around 25 degrees in the atmosphere and 40 on the tarmac – Andrea Dovizioso finished in ninth position in 1:21.489.
The Ducati Team rider worked on race pace ahead of Sunday focusing on tyre wear, a variable that at Sachsenring – which features 10 left-hand corners out of 13 in total and a race distance of 30 laps – often turned out to be decisive towards the final results. Dovizioso improved by nine tenths of a second off his best lap time to post a 1:21.489 with a hard rear tyre in the afternoon.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 1:21.489 (9th)
“We’ve been able to progressively improve our performance but, at the moment, we still haven’t reached the competitiveness we’re aiming for. In particular, we’re struggling a bit with corner speed but I’m not too worried because it’s only Friday and we still have plenty of time to work on the bike. I wasn’t able to ride a ‘clean’ lap towards the end, also because I’m still suffering a bit due to a small issue with my back, and I preferred not to push too hard in the final laps and instead pace myself ahead of the rest of the weekend. For sure we’ll be quicker tomorrow morning, but so will be our rivals. We just need to stay focused and keep working, on consistency even more so than pure speed, because the race distance is 30 laps here.”

Just a few days after the Dutch GP, ended in fourth on the finish line, Dovizioso is ready to resume action near Chemnitz (Germany) at Sachsenring for the ninth round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship, the last one before the summer break.
Dovi’s target is to get closer to the top of the standings and finish the first leg of the season positively ahead of a challenging start of the second phase, with three races scheduled in August.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 2nd (116 points)
“The track’s layout isn’t particularly suited for our bike’s characteristics, but the tyres also play a key role towards the final result of the race. I don’t expect an easy challenge as we’ll have plenty of strong rivals, and not just Márquez because probably Yamaha and Suzuki will also be competitive on an anti-clockwise track with so many tight corners. At any rate, we know we have our work cut out for us but each race is a different story and we want to keep moving forward on this circuit. Last year the gap on the finish line was small, but we still have room for improvement. We need to stay focused and finish the first half of the championship on a positive note.”