Ducati hopeful of strong weekend

Andrea Dovizioso has struggled in recent races with a lack of feeling under braking but the Italian is confident that he can improve his fortunes this weekend at Motegi. The GP15 started the season as a regular podium contender but in the second half of the season Dovizioso has drifted back towards the top ten and fallen adrift of the lead fight.

Returning to Motegi, where he won on a 125cc machine, however is giving him confidence having started from pole position last year at the Japanese track.

“Motegi is one of my preferred tracks because there is a lot of braking, and this year I hope to be just as fast with my GP15, even though I didn’t have a great feeling at Aragón,” said the Italian. “We will try and modify the set-up to improve the stability under braking, but in any case I am optimistic about Motegi because I’ve almost always scored good results in MotoGP, including twice taking pole, in 2010 and last year.”

On the other side of the Ducati garage Andrea Iannone continues to recover from his shoulder injury but having finished fifth in Aragon he’s keen to once again show that his promising form this year can continue.

 “I have really good memories of Motegi, because I won a strange 125cc race there in 2009 and another one in Moto2 in 2011. For me it’s a great track, even though last year it was a little bit difficult in MotoGP. This year with the GP15 I hope to improve my performance a lot, always providing that my left shoulder doesn’t cause me too much bother under braking!”