The introduction of Michelin as the tyre supplier for the MotoGP™ World Championship has made for some unpredictable weekends, teams and riders unable to rely on past knowledge before heading to a GP and making every minute out on track crucial. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) is hoping that the Motul TT Assen will be a better round for him after struggling with tyre life in Barcelona. On paper the Dutch GP looks set to be much cooler, and potentially wet, which could help the Italian who has a knack for going well in tricky conditions.
Assen is always a special weekend, the event steeped in history. It will be a landmark weekend for Dovizioso who is set to make his 150th premier class start. In 2011, 2012 and 2014 he finished on the podium, despite not rating the Dutch track amongst his favourites, and is hoping to return to the podium once more. It won’t be easy as Dovizioso is aware that Ducati are still missing a small step or two to be able to consistently challenge.
Andrea Dovizioso: “The post-race Barcelona test was important because we were able to work on improving the Desmosedici GP. At this moment in time we are competitive but we are still missing something to get back up to the front and fight for the podium. I believe that we can do better at Assen than Barcelona because there is more grip and the drop in tyre performance during the race shouldn’t be as marked as in Spain. Even though it’s not one of our favourite tracks, I am confident we can score a good result, but this year it’s impossible to make any predictions before the race, seeing as we don’t know how the tyres Michelin bring will behave here.”