Mission Winnow Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso heads into this weekend’s Gran Premio Motul de la Republica Argentina brimming with confidence after what he says was the “best possible start” - beating Marc Marquez (Respol Honda Team) in a last lap duel in Qatar.
The current MotoGP™ World Championship leader won’t allow himself or the Bologna factory to become complacent, however, stating that he feels he “will suffer” in South America due to the Desmosedici GP19 not being best suited to the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit.
“We have started the World Championship in the best possible way, with the victory in Qatar,” says Dovizioso on the season opening 25-point haul. “But the season is long and experience has taught us that cannot let our guard down.”
“Our base is good, we are working well and at Losail we are able to make the most of our strengths, especially in terms of top speed and acceleration, but we still have to improve our performance in the middle of the corner.”
Dovizioso has struggled in Argentina since Grand Prix racing returned. The 33-year-old has only finished inside the top five once in the five visits MotoGP™ has made to Termas de Rio Hondo, and that came four years ago in 2015, with a 2nd place finish behind Valentino Rossi (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP).
On the weekend ahead, the factory Ducati man says: “Argentina, and in particular the race, will be a good test for us and allow us to try find new solutions. Our goal is to be on the podium, particularly on the tracks where we theoretically will suffer, in order to fight for the title until the very end.”
The two-time runner-up isn’t expecting a dominant weekend but at the same time is fully aware he will have to stop a run of unfavourable results in Argentina in order to be competitive at all 19 rounds this season and consequently put together a strong championship challenge.