Mugello MotoGP: Dovi 04 - Petrux 9 and Ducati all Perfect

GDN - Andrea Dovizioso has admitted that his race win in yesterday“™s Italian Grand Prix was the perfect end to a difficult day for the Italian, worrying in the morning that he might not even make the race after waking up in the middle of the night with suspected food poisoning.

Yet despite admitting afterwards that he started the race worrying about his energy levels, the 31-tyear-old rode a faultless race to take a stunning race win in front of a crowd who had come to admire Valentino Rossi. Despite Valentino being out of the podium"fourth" all the crowd at the end of the racing race went under the podium to applaud and wish good luck to Andrea Dovizioso" the winner" and Danilo Petrucci "third" and Ducati. “It was a fantastic day for me but it had started badly after a sleepless night because I had a bit of food poisoning. Today I didn“™t have much energy, but I knew that the bike was going to be strong, because we had worked well throughout the weekend and I also had a lot of support from my fans, physiotherapist and family and this made a big difference.

“Despite the fact that I wasn“™t at 100%, I was able to administer the race even though I wasn“™t the quickest man out there, but I did a perfect strategy, and I moved into the right position at the right moment. I rode really smoothly, I never forced the pace excessively and this made all the difference because Mugello is a track that physically wears you out and in any case the tyres did not allow me to push too hard. Finally, we did it: winning at Mugello is really something special!“ And, with Ducati boss Claudio Domenicali in attendance, the win couldn“™t have come at a better place for Dovi - with the CEO paying tribute to his racer after the victory. “Today“™s win is a magnificent result that is just reward for all the hard work and sacrifices that everyone in Ducati Corse have done over the last few months and so I want to dedicate this splendid victory to them. At Mugello we saw two Ducati bikes and two Italian riders on the podium, with Andrea on the top step, in a fantastic race with no real retirements, and in the end the best man and bike won. Today we had an extraordinary bike and Dovizioso scored an exceptional result. This is the result of great team-work, and I think all Italians will be proud of it.“