Andrea Dovizioso seeking easier Honda

Italian rider Andrea Dovizioso believes Honda still needs to make its factory RC212V contender a more manageable package in 2010.

Although Honda management continue to insist that the bike is not good enough to fight consistently at the front in the premier class, Dovizioso was less than two seconds away from winning the season’s opening race Qatar last month.

And last weekend in Jerez, Dani Pedrosa finished just 0.5s behind compatriot Jorge Lorenzo in a thrilling finale to the Spanish GP.

But 2009 British GP winner Dovizioso still believes that the RC212V is too physically demanding to ride over a long distance and he told MCN: “Compared to Yamaha we have much more power and in some places like in the straight we are better than them.

“But in some corner exits it is more difficult to manage for us. Also with more power we are slower. The problem is not that we’re slower but we spend more energy to manage the bike.

“One of our targets is to make the bike easier to ride. You need to be smooth with the 800s and right now our bike is too physical to ride.

“We’ve changed a lot the balance of the bike during the winter and I’m really happy with the bike compared to last year.”

Dovizioso finished sixth in Jerez last Sunday and is currently fourth in the overall rankings on 26-points to trail series leader Lorenzo by 19-points heading to the next round in Le Mans on May 23.