Dovizioso: “We are improving, but it is still not enough”

Shouldering extra responsibility at the MotoGP Official Test over the weekend as he continues to make final adjustments to the factory RC212V in the absence of injured team-mate Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso was in a philosophical mood after seeing Casey Stoner run away with the BMW M Award in Jerez.

Assessing his findings from the Spanish test visit, the young Italian rider admitted, “It was not bad and my lap time was quite fast, but Stoner is unbelievable! We have improved little bit on our problems, though it is still not enough. We need to keep working, but the rain on Sunday meant we couldn't try any more new material, so we will just have to continue the job on the weekend of the race in Qatar.”

Dovizioso’s day was split into three parts, a dry morning free practice in which he finished fifth and improved on his best time from Saturday, the 45-minute BMW M Award session in which he upped his pace but ended up seventh - and a wet final practice in which he lapped 20 times and came out on top of a shortened timesheet featuring the names of eight of his MotoGP rivals.

Detailing his continued adaptation to the new Japanese rubber to be used in his second premier class season, he also stated, “The feeling with the Bridgestones now is really, really good. The setting on the bike is still not at 100% but the feeling with the front is getting better and better. The grip on the rear end still needs some attention though.”

Noting his solid performance in the final session, Dovizioso added simply, “As far as the wet set-up goes, my feeling with the bike and tyres is good and I’m happy about this. Now I’m looking forward to getting to Qatar for the first race.”

Dovizioso’s new Team Manager in the factory Honda structure, Kazuhiko Yamano, gave his perspective on the final preseason test, saying, “We’ve made some useful improvements at this test and this is positive for the Repsol Honda team, though there is still a sizeable gap to the fastest riders and we will keep working to close this as quickly as possible. We are not at our maximum level of potential with this machine yet. Andrea did a good job at this test and worked very hard, putting in a lot of laps.”