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MotoGP, Dovizioso: "To fight Marquez I have to get back to winning"

"I'm more consistent than last year, but Marc is always on the podium. MX riding with Valentino? More fun than training"

MotoGP: Dovizioso: "To fight Marquez I have to get back to winning"

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Andrea Dovizioso will continue to chase Marc Marquez at Barcelona, a track that has seen Ducati triumph in the last two years. Expectations are high then, but eyes are also on #93 who has only failed to score point in three of the last 18 races, finishing the remaining 15 on the podium.

Why do you tell me these things, I don't look at that, I don't like it – jokes Dovi – This is an area in which Marc has improved. He's started to use his head and make less mistakes. It's impossible to have a strategy or plan against him, as we're always pushing to the limit. You have to try and make the right decisions because if you're making strategies it means you have a margin and we don't right now. The season is long and we need to find something”.

Find something with which to beat Marquez he means.

"Being 12 points from Marc at this point of the championship is positive, I'm more consistent than last year. But I want to get back to winning ways, we need to do that if we want to fight Marquez for the title, as on his worst days he still makes the podium. Barcelona is a great track, I think we'll be competitive but type behaviour and temperatures will affect performance" he warns.

Attention turns to a possible union with Petrucci against the common enemy.

“We'll wait and see what our level's like. We also need to see how competitive we'll be at the next tracks”.

To relax after a somewhat disappointing Mugello, Dovi took part in the DTM with Audi and spent a day riding MX with Petrucci and Rossi.

“A casual thing, Valentino suggested it earlier in the year but I didn't think we'd be able to organise it, also because his staff don't want him to do MX training, after his injury. But we managed to find a date. The problem is that nothing is simple when you arrange something with Valentino - he jokes - you might turn up at 1pm, then he arrives a couple of hours later and you find you don't end up talking until the evening, over a beer. Not a training session no, but a fun day together".

Andrea comes from the world of MX and always seeks out rivals who are at his level.

“Yes, I look for riders who have similar pace to me, like Danilo. It's not always easy to find good tracs, but last week went well, there were some other world championship riders there, and so it was useful to ride with them”.

His final comments regard the DTM experience.

“The automotive world has always fascinated me, but particularly a championship like the DTM, very professional and with investment behind it.  The cars are true prototypes, fast and great fun to drive, but also complicated. I don't know how many buttons I had to press, and I also had to talk to the garage and my level of English definitely didn't help. I had little time and a lot to learn, but I had a lot of fun” .

Audio recorded by Paolo Scalera

Translated by Heather Watson
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