After a grandiose season in 2018, Andrea Dovizioso once again occupies second place in the general classification this year behind Marc Marquez, but the gap between the two champions is much greater now.
The Spaniard leads the Italian by 78 points, while after the Misano race there will only be six events remaining. Márquez is not yet World Champion, but the balance is currently clearly tilting in his favor.
Dovi had a magical race in Austria, rewarded with a well-deserved victory. But it is not far from the Capitol at Roche Tarpéienne and the leader Ducati was the victim of a fall in the first turn during the last GP at Silverstone, unable to avoid the bike in distress on the ground. fabio quartararo.
Andrea was seriously shaken during this accident, and he participated without being able to push too hard in the tests on August 29 and 30, settling for a modest seventeenth place in the final ranking of the two days, 1.860 behind “El Diablo”.
If he recovers well this weekend, which everyone wants and in particular the transalpine fans, Dovi could aim for his third victory of the season, after Qatar and Austria. He has yet to achieve a pole position this year, but he holds the lap record at Misano, while his ex-teammate Jorge Lorenzo has the absolute circuit record, on a Ducati.
According to Andrea Dovizioso, “After the incident in England, I am lucky to be able to participate in the San Marino GP without any physical problems, because my crash at Silverstone was very serious and the consequences could have been much worse. »
“During the two days of testing I was still not 100% fit, but now I'm good, I feel in good shape and I'm really looking forward to racing on this circuit, which is special for me, close to home and where I'm sure the fan support will be fantastic. »
“The aim is to repeat the results of the last two seasons when we got on the podium and were competitive throughout the weekend. »
Misano test results:
Reference times:
Test record: 1'31.629 by Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati) in 2018
Lap record: 1'32.678 by Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) in 2018
Best top speed: 299,5 km/h for Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) in 2015
Provisional ranking of the World Championship:
1 Marc MÁRQUEZ–Honda 250 points
2 Andrea DOVIZIOSO–Ducati 172
3 Alex RINS–Suzuki 149
4 Danilo PETRUCCI–Ducati 145
5 Maverick VIÑALES–Yamaha 118
6 Valentino ROSSI–Yamaha 116
7 Jack MILLER–Ducati 94
8 Fabio QUARTARARO–Yamaha 92
9 Cal CRUTCHLOW–Honda 88
10 Franco MORBIDELLI–Yamaha 69
11 Pol ESPARGARÓ–KTM 68
12 Takaaki NAKAGAMI–Honda 62
13 Joan MIR–Suzuki 39
14 Aleix ESPARGARÓ–Aprilia 33
15 Francesco BAGNAIA–Ducati 29
16 Andrea IANNONE–Aprilia 27
17 Miguel OLIVEIRA–KTM 26
18 Johann ZARCO–KTM 22
19 Jorge LORENZO–Honda 21
20 Stefan BRADL–Honda 16
21 Tito RABAT–Ducati 14
22 Michele PIRRO–Ducati 9
23 Sylvain GUINTOLI–Suzuki 7
24 Hafizh SYAHRIN–KTM 6
25 Karel ABRAHAM–Ducati 5
Photos © Ducati
