With the arrival of the new Desmosedici GP during 2016 pre-season testing Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) was hoping to be able to fight for the top step of the podium and take Ducati’s first win since Casey Stoner at Philip Island in 2010.
He started his fourth season with the factory team by equalling his 2015 performance at the opening race of the season in Qatar by finishing in second. He was then robbed of another podium after being taken out by his teammate Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team) on the last lap in Argentina. Just a week later he was taken out by Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) in Austin, once again while battling for the podium.
He may have been unlucky, but the Italian had clearly shown he had the pace to challenge for the podium at every race, but his bad luck would haunt him again in Jerez when he was forced to retire with technical issues. He then also crashed out of the race in Le Mans, this time he had no one else to blame though as he fell at almost exactly the same time as Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) ahead of him.
Before the Italian GP he announced that he would be staying with the Ducati Team for another two seasons until 2018 alongside Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP). He went on to finish his home race in fifth at Mugello and followed that up with seventh at the Catalan GP, before crashing once again in the wet at Assen as he was battling for the lead after starting from pole.
Dovizioso recorded his second podium of the season at the Sachsenring, Ducati’s 100th in the premier class, after an excellent ride in the tricky conditions. After four DNF’s so far in 2016 the Italian enters the mid-season break ninth in the championship, just four points behind his teammate Iannone.