After leading early on at Mugello and then narrowly missing the podium Andrea Dovizioso was in good spirits after his home race.

Even though he missed the podium by a minimal margin for the second MotoGP round in a row Andrea Dovizioso was not disappointed after the Gran Premio d’Italia Alice, instead taking motivation from fighting at the front and running in the lead in the early stages.

At the chequered flag, the Italian Dovizioso was just 2.129s behind the race winner Australian Casey Stoner and followed ‘the king of Mugello’ Valentino Rossi over the line by the smallest of margins. Earlier in the race the Italian rider had made the best of his wet set-up, running in second place in the initial laps, but he dropped back to third before taking the lead for the first time on lap four.

After the race Andrea Dovizioso said “The sensation of being in the lead in the race was really good, here in Mugello with so many fans it was so nice. Our strategy was perfect but we couldn’t fight for the victory because we weren’t fast enough. Anyway we were very close so this is important.” he also added “With three laps to go I tried to keep in contact with the others and when Rossi overtook me, I managed to stay with him. Then I tried to slipstream him out of the last corner but I couldn’t make it. Anyway, all in all it was an exciting race and a positive result.”

Talking about his overall performance levels during the race Andrea Dovizioso added, “We are getting closer, but still not close enough to win. We need to keep on working because we are still not as competitive as the fastest riders, especially in dry conditions. I want to say thanks to the team because they did a great job today, and we’ll use this result to give us extra motivation.”