Andrea Dovizioso has arrived in Malaysia for the third and final leg of the challenging series of three overseas end-of-season races, which will see the MotoGP teams notch up around 35,000 kilometres of flight distance in less than one month.
The Ducati Team has won four times at Sepang thanks to Loris Capirossi, Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso, who scored his first win for Ducati and second in MotoGP here exactly twelve months ago. After the 2016 race in Malaysia, the last twelve months have been a whirlwind of wins and podiums for the Italian driver from Forlimpopoli, which have led him to fight for the title, right until the last round held at Phillip Island a few days ago. In the Australian GP Dovizioso only scored a thirteenth place, but even after this sudden stop, Andrea will try to keep the battle open with two rounds remaining, despite a gap of 33 points to leader Marquez.
With two rounds still to go before the end of the championship, Dovizioso is in second place in the overall standings with 236 points.
The Sepang weekend programme gets underway on Friday morning with the first free practice session at 9.55 am (03.55 CET), while the 20-lap race is scheduled for Sunday at 15.00 (08.00 CET).
Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team #04) – 2nd (236 points)
“Unfortunately I lost a lot of points at Phillip Island and now my shot at the title appears to be compromised. But I always think positively and we are here in Malaysia at a very challenging circuit, together with the heat, where I won last year and where anything can happen. If Marquez keeps on being so fast in the last two races, it’s going to be a tough task, but at this point we must only try and bring home the best possible result and we are going all out to do that.”