Top five the aim for Dovizioso, asserts Berti

A new structure in the Repsol Honda team garage will be in place for the 2010 season, with both Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso having individual Team Managers. Gianni Berti will be on the Italian rider’s side of the box, and after the pre-season preparations were completed in Qatar he feels Dovizioso can consistently ride inside the top five this year.

The final pre-season MotoGP Test in Qatar in mid-March was the last opportunity for the premier class riders to fine tune the set-ups of the prototypes, and the work completed by Dovizioso and his team has left all, including Berti, in a very positive frame of mind.

Dovizioso was the third fastest rider of the Test as he achieved a much better chassis setting across both days, and Berti believes the level of confidence achieved by the Italian rider with the RC212V means he can now target the top five this season, having finished the 2009 campaign in sixth spot.

“The two days of testing were really busy for us because it was the last test and we had quite a lot of parts to try out regarding the chassis,” explained Berti. “We had to adapt the riding style of Andrea to fit with the bike. The mechanics worked very hard to complete the planned work, and Andrea was also satisfied because we made some improvements in general. He has some more confidence now with the machine so we are satisfied at the moment.”

Berti added: “Of course it’s not enough: we are looking to improve more because the competition to be competitive for the podium is really hard, but we are continuing that way. My feeling is that we can ride in the top five.”