Going into round eight, Dovizioso is second in the Riders standings, 37 points shy of the lead, while Petrucci is fourth, just five points behind his teammate. Both Dovizioso and Petrucci are keen to make the most of the technical upgrades tested after the race at Montmeló to score as many points as possible and cut the gap in the rankings. Ducati is second among Manufacturers with 131 points, while the Ducati Team leads the Team standings with 201 points.

Andrea Dovizioso (#04 Ducati Team) – 2nd (103 points)
“There’s no time to linger on the points lost at Barcelona, we need to tackle each race working as hard as we’ve done until now. I believe we are showing great competitiveness and, even though there are always areas to improve, we have proven our speed. Assen isn’t the most favorable track for our bike and weather conditions always play a fundamental role there, but at any rate we’ve shown we’re capable of progressively improving during the course of a weekend even on tricky circuits. We need to stay calm and focused, taking it one race at a time. The Championship has still a long way to go.”

Danilo Petrucci (#9 Ducati Team) – 4th (98 points)
“I’ve always had good sensations at Assen, it’s one of my favourite circuits despite the fact that on paper it’s not the easiest for us. We’ve been on a positive streak in the last few races, so first of all I want to be competitive and fight for the podium once again. Also, last year I had a quite difficult weekend at Assen, so I’ll have an extra motivation going into this round. Weather will be a question mark, and even though my riding style and the characteristics of the Desmosedici GP could represent an advantage in wet conditions, I hope we’ll have a dry race. We have another chance to score a good result.”

The Ducati Team will resume action Friday, June 28th, at 09:55 (CET) for the first free-practice session while the race is scheduled for Sunday at 14:00.