Ducati Team has performed brilliantly in the 2019 MotoGP season so far. We witnessed tremendous performance by Danilo Petrucci at the Italian GP where he secured his first-ever MotoGP victory. His teammate Dovizioso finished 3rd. In the last race in Catalunya, Petrucci finished 3rd but Dovi retired as he got caught up in a chain reaction started by Jorge Lorenzo. Now, it’s time for the 8th round of the season, and the Ducati Team is ready.
Going into round eight, Dovizioso is second in the riders’ standings, 37 points shy of the lead, while Petrucci is fourth, just five points behind his teammate. Both Dovizioso and Petrucci are keen to make the most of the technical upgrades tested after the race at Montmeló to score as many points as possible and cut the gap in the rankings. Ducati is second among the manufacturers with 131 points, while the Ducati Team leads the team standings with 201 points.
Speaking about the next race, Dovizioso said, “There’s no time to linger on the points lost at Barcelona, we need to tackle each race working as hard as we’ve done until now. I believe we are showing great competitiveness and, even though there are always areas to improve, we have proven our speed. Assen isn’t the most favourable track for our bike and weather conditions always play a fundamental role there, but at any rate, we’ve shown we’re capable of progressively improving during the course of a weekend even on tricky circuits. We need to stay calm and focused, taking it one race at a time. The Championship has still a long way to go.”
Here’s what the 28-year-old Petrucci had to say, “I’ve always had good sensations at Assen, it’s one of my favourite circuits despite the fact that on paper it’s not the easiest for us. We’ve been on a positive streak in the last few races, so, first of all, I want to be competitive and fight for the podium once again. Also, last year I had a quite difficult weekend at Assen, so I’ll have extra motivation going into this round. Weather will be a question mark, and even though my riding style and the characteristics of the Desmosedici GP could represent an advantage in wet conditions, I hope we’ll have a dry race. We have another chance to score a good result.”
Ducati holds the top speed record of 319.8 km/h at the Assen TT Circuit which was set by Iannone in 2015. The best lap of the track has still been the one that Rossi did in 1:32.627 in 2015 on his Yamaha. Last year, it was Marc Marquez to cross the chequered flag first followed by Alex Rins, and Maverick Vinales. Let’s see who wins the 2019 Dutch GP!
