Andrea Dovizioso is hopeful that Ducati will be competitive in this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix despite the team having an awful time in Sepang during pre-season testing. The Italian squad struggled for pace when they ran here in February but Dovizioso is expecting conditions to be a little different which may bring them into play.
“Sepang is one of my favourite tracks, but the tests in February weren’t so good. It looks like our bike didn’t work very well on that track, especially because the grip is very low, but maybe the conditions now are different and we can show some improvement. Anyway we’re going there always to push 100% and try to have fun with the bike.”
Teammate Nicky Hayden is now entering his final four races with Ducati and the American is keen to sign off with one more good result, although he concedes he may be up against it.
“It was nice to get home for a week and attend my little sister’s wedding, but I’m very excited to get to Malaysia and move on from Aragon. This race will kick off three important weeks for me, and I really want to dig in and try to do whatever we can to get a good result somewhere along the way. We know it’ll be very difficult, starting in Malaysia, but it’s a good track that has everything—fast corners, slow corners, long straights. We’ll go there with the intention of doing better than we did in Aragon. I’m looking forward to getting back on track.”
