Motegi MotoGP: Andrea Dovizioso confident of victory challenge

Andrea Dovizioso is confident he can claim only his second career MotoGP victory in Japan having romped to his first premier class pole position at the Twin Ring Motegi today.

A brilliant lap of 1.47.001 was enough to deny compatriot Valentino Rossi his first pole position since the French Grand Prix at Le Mans by just 0.054s.

And Dovizioso, who won last year’s rain-hit British Grand Prix at Donington Park, said: “We started really well from the beginning and yesterday I felt we had margin to be faster. Today everybody went much faster but I’m surprised about the lap time because a low 47 is really fast.

I’m really happy about the job of the team because we have a lot of power but it is not easy to manage it and we made a really good set-up with the electronics. That is so important and we are really fast here.”

Dovizioso said the biggest threat could come from Fiat Yamaha rival Jorge Lorenzo even though the Spaniard failed to qualify on the front row for the first time in 2010.
The former world 125GP champion said:

“Sure we have the possibility to win but Lorenzo is more consistent than us. But our lap time is good and normally if I’m fast in the practice I’m also fast in the race and maybe a little bit more, so I’m really confident.

“But sure the race in MotoGP is always different and difficult and we need to see the weather tomorrow. But we have a good possibility to fight not just for the podium but also the victory.”