Andrea Dovizioso

Andrea Dovizioso’s obsession for bikes started when he was a little boy. He inherited the passion for fuel, speed and mud from his father Antonio, who raced in motocross every Sunday. Little Andrea would accompany him and cheer from the side of the track. Born in Forlimpopoli –a town near Bologna- in March 1986, Andrea Dovizioso breathed motorcycling from the cradle in one of the most motorcycling-obsessed regions of all Italy.

With those precedents, it is not surprising that the little boy started to be an addict to what is still his greatest passion. When he was four years old, he bet with his father that, if he was able to go on bicycle without training wheels, his father would buy him a motorbike. And he did it. He did not expect his father to keep his promise, but some days later he found at the door of his house what would be his first motocross bike.

At the age of six arrived the first pocket bike and at seven he started to mix pocket bike races with minicross. Back then he used number 34 on his bike as a tribute to Kevin Schwantz, one of the great motorcycling icons who was at the peak of his career. Some years later, when he was eleven, he started as the official rider of an Italian team, GRC, and kept alternating speed with cross, until he chose speed at fourteen.

With the arrival of the year 2000, he competed in his first 125cc championship, the Aprilia Challenge Cup. He achieved the final victory, which was a very meaningful success for him, as it was the first with a “real” bike. The next year he raced in the Italian championship, finishing fourth and securing his first great continental triumph by becoming 125cc European Champion. This title allowed him to make his debut in the World Championship as wild card in the Italian Grand Prix. His performance opened the door to take part the next year in his first complete World Championship season. It was with a Honda 125 GP, and he finished in sixteenth position.

In 2003 he ended the World Championship in fifth place, after getting for the first time on the podium in only his second race of the season, in South Africa. Another three podium followed in France, England and Motegi, but his definitive confirmation was a year later. In 2004 and barely of age, Andrea Dovizioso not only achieved his first victory in the first race of the season, but he finished first in another four rounds and got on the podium another six times. Excellent results that allowed him to secure the 125cc World Championship. It was the result of many years dedication, consistency and sacrifice.

It was then when he took the big step to the 250 class and finished third in the championship after getting on the podium five times. The next two seasons, 2006 and 2007, Dovizioso finished on the very threshold of the title, gathering two runner-up positions, 4 wins and 22 podiums with a Honda that was hardly developed compared with its powerful rivals. These results left him a little disappointed, because even if he proved to be one of the fastest, visiting the podium regularly, his ambition was to get the title before taking the leap to MotoGP.

Despite that, in 2008 he faced the challenge to compete in the MotoGP category, where he achieved a podium and finished fifth in the Championship, being the best placed non-official rider. The season was not easy for the Italian, who with his unofficial Honda RC212V and tyres that were not always the best, had to overcome a year in which the class level was remarkably high.

Dovizioso made his debut with an excellent fourth position in Qatar’s night race, a place he took again in Catalunya, Laguna Seca and Valencia. He showed a great consistency, finishing half of the races in the top five and achieving his best result in Malaysia, where he took the third step of the podium. These results, together with his good résumé, attracted the attention of HRC, and earned him a place as Dani Pedrosa’s team mate in the factory squad, the Repsol Honda Team.

Andrea got for the first time on the RC212V 2008 in Repsol livery the day after the last Grand Prix of the season, in Valencia. There were some months of preparation left to start his big dream, compete in the MotoGP World Championship with the official HRC team, the Repsol Honda Team, and establish himself as one of the favourites of the Continental Circus grid.

In his first year wearing the Spanish company’s colours and riding a factory Honda, Dovizioso had a tough season in which competition was again fierce. Nevertheless, he achieved his first victory in the premier class. Demonstrating the consistency that has always defined him, he stayed close to the leading riders of the class and finished fourth six times. However, three consecutive crashes by the half point of the championship and the added difficulty of the change of suspensions brand at the end of the season, put him in sixth position at the conclusion of the championship.

The season started with the atypical night race in Qatar, which took place in Monday due to an unexpected storm that battered the Arabian peninsula the day the World Championship had to start. Dovizioso ended in fifth place, a position he would repeat in the following round in Japan. Over at Jerez, after an off-track at mid race, he improved from the sixteenth to the eighth position, two weeks before ending just outside the podium in Le Mans, France. He took again a fourth position in Mugello and Catalunya, but in the Netherlands, United States and Germany, the three following rounds of the championship, took no points due to two crashes when he was fighting in the top four and to a defective tyre that forced him to retire.

Before the summer break, arrived his best result of the year, in the most critical moment for the Repsol rider. With a light rain falling the day of Donington Park’s farewell to the World Championship calendar, Andrea Dovizioso was able to hold his ground in the lead to achieve his first win in the MotoGP category. After the summer, he was consistent and took three fourth places in the Czech Republic, Indianapolis and San Marino, a round in which the Italian changed of suspensions brand.

Halfway through the adaptation process, he finished seventh in Portugal and sixth in Australia, although he crashed in Malaysia seven laps before the end of the race when he was third. The last round of the season was again a hard battle for Dovizioso, who, after a bad start, was able to overtake up to six rivals to finish eighth.

In 2010, Dovizioso’s second year in the Repsol Honda Team was rewarded with a good step ahead compared to the season before. The Italian would not finish just outside the podium in many World Championship rounds, but he got on the rostrum up to seven times. A number that was far ahead from the two only podiums achieved in 2009. Furthermore, that season he secured his first ‘pole position’ in MotoGP since he started in the class in 2008. The improvement also showed in the general classification of the championship as for the main part of the season the Italian fought for the third overall place. Nevertheless, the three races Andrea Dovizioso was not able to finish in the second half of the season, left him in fifth position, improving the sixth place he had taken the year before.

After the preseason Andrea Dovizioso already kept a good pace, which showed the good feelings he had with the bike. They were turned into positive results from the first race. The Repsol rider started the year with a podium thanks to a third position in Qatar. He had to battle for it up to the finish line. After the sixth place set in Jerez where he had set-up problems, it did not take long for Dovizioso to achieve again podium positions. He took a third in Le Mans and Mugello and the second position in Silverstone. A string of good results that brought him the runner-up position in the championship. After a fifth in Assen, arrived a fourteenth place in the Catalonian Grand Prix, after a crash at ten laps from the end when he was fighting for victory.

Dovizioso’s year continued with a fifth place in Germany and a fourth in Laguna Seca, after fighting for the podium up to the last corner. But in the Czech Republic, when the Italian was battling again for the third place, a crash forced him to retire. Ambitious and a real fighter, the Repsol rider recovered in Indianapolis the third place in the overall classification, – thanks to a fifth position- that he reinforced in Misano with a fourth place in a sad day, that of the passing away of the Moto2 rider Shoya Tomizawa.

After a new crash in Aragon, the Japan Grand Prix left good memories for the Italian: his first ‘pole’ in MotoGP, a second position and, with it, the 250th podium of the Repsol Honda Team. Dovizioso repeated with a second place in Malaysia and was left out of the race in Australia due to a technical failure. The year ended with a third place in Portugal and a fifth in Valencia, which earned him the fifth position in the overall classification of the Championship.

About the 2011 season, Andrea Dovizioso is confident that he will be able to keep the upward trend his results have shown since he arrived to the Repsol Honda Team. He faces the new season with the challenge to continue visiting the podium frequently to get closer to the battle for the top three. The experience of the last two years and the Italian rider’s ambition will help in a season where he will be again Dani Pedrosa’s team mate, but the team will also count on Australian Casey Stoner.