Andrea Dovizioso

Biography
2015 will see Andrea Dovizioso line up in the Ducati Team colours for a third successive year in the MotoGP World Championship. In the last two seasons, which have been characterized by ups and downs, the 28-year-old racer from the Romagna region of Italy has made a major contribution to the development of the Desmosedici bike and a fifth place overall in the 2014 standings bodes well for a year in which Ducati aims to be back amongst the top protagonists in the premier category.

Andrea was born in Forlimpopoli on 23 March 1986, and his passion for motorcycles started when he watched his father race motocross at weekends. When he was just 4 years old, his dad surprised him with a minibike and by the age of seven, Andrea was racing on both asphalt and dirt. Two mini road racing titles in 1997 and '98 were his first taste of championship glory.
Andrea moved up to 125cc machines in the Aprilia Challenge in 2000, immediately taking the crown. One year later, he added the European 125cc title to his trophy-case with a pair of wins in Hungary. That year Andrea also finished fourth in the Italian Championship and entered his first Grand Prix, in Italy. In 2002, He raced a Honda for the Scot team, ending the 125cc standings in sixteenth place. He continued with Cirano Mularoni's squad in 2003, qualifying on the front row in South Africa and achieving his first GP podium finish as runner-up. His first pole came in France, where he also finished the race in third place. Two more podiums in Britain and Japan saw Dovi finish fifth overall and he then scored his maiden victory in South Africa in 2004, following that up with wins in France, Britain, Japan, and Australia. Six more podium finishes and eight poles helped power him to the world title.

Andrea moved to 250cc in 2005 with the same team that had taken him to success in 125cc. He scored five podium finishes to end the season in third place. In 2006 he took his first 250cc win in Catalunya, and his second at the penultimate race in Portugal. Eleven podium finishes that year, together with his first two poles, took him to the runner-up slot. He repeated that result in 2007, with wins in Turkey and Britain, and eight more podiums to go with two pole positions.

Again with Scot Honda, Andrea then moved up to MotoGP in 2008, and kicked off his premium class career with fourth in Qatar. His consistency paid off as he finished fifth in his rookie season, scoring nine top-five finishes and his first podium in Sepang. Andrea's potential was rewarded when HRC put him in the factory team for 2009. The Italian scored his first win in a wet British Grand Prix, and finished the season sixth overall. Dovi went one better in 2010, finishing runner-up three times, and notching up a first-ever pole in Japan. In Andrea's third season with Honda, with Pedrosa and Stoner as teammates, he finished fifteen times in the top five, impressive results that included seven podiums. Dovi finished third overall, his best result in the premier class.

After a decade on Hondas, Dovizioso moved to Tech3 Yamaha in 2012, when MotoGP switched from 800cc to 1,000cc engines. Teamed with Crutchlow, he continued to shine despite no longer being at the factory level, scoring six third-place finishes and placing in the top five on fourteen occasions. Fourth overall, with three front-row starts, was the best result by a non-factory rider.

In his first year with the Ducati Team, Dovizioso started with hopes of being on a competitive machine by the end of the season, but things went differently and his best results were a fourth place in France, and two front-row starts at Le Mans and Mugello.

Things took a turn for the better in 2014. The arrival of Luigi Dall'Igna as Ducati Corse Technical Director breathed new life into the entire team and Dovizioso, this time flanked by his former partner Crutchlow, was finally able to obtain some encouraging results. He twice finished on the podium in the first half of the season (at Austin and Assen), and then placed the GP14 on pole in Japan. A fifth place overall with 187 points to his name was just reward at the end of the season.