The Ducati Team is gearing up to tackle this weekend’s Motul Grand Prix of Japan, round 15 of the 2014 MotoGP™ World Championship and the first leg in a tough triple-header, which will continue with two more rounds in Australia and Malaysia over the following two weekends.

The Twin Ring Motegi circuit has an unusual layout, with a series of long straights followed by tight corners that are a tough test for the brakes of the bikes and their performance in acceleration.

Historically the Ducati Team have scored some good results at the Japanese venue; in particular the four victories obtained by Loris Capirossi and Casey Stoner, who won his first world title with Ducati in 2007 at Motegi.

Andrea Dovizioso likes the Japanese circuit and has appeared on the podium in all three categories, winning the 125cc race in 2004, while Cal Crutchlow qualified on the front row in 2012 but last year was unable to go any higher than seventh place in the race.

Dovizioso previewed the visit to the Far East, saying,

“Motegi is a track that I like, especially because I am a hard braker and this is an advantage, due to the characteristics of the track. I think that our GP14 can again be competitive in Japan, because in the last four races we have always been competitive at circuits with completely different characteristics. So for sure we’ll be going to Motegi very motivated.”

The Italian rider added, “I’ve scored some good results in MotoGP there, especially in 2010 when I set pole position, my only pole so far in MotoGP, and then finished the race with a great second place.”

Crutchlow, meanwhile, goes into the Motegi date on the back of his first podium with Ducati. He stated,

“With a good result at Aragon under our belt, we are looking forward to going to Japan, where I’ve got a lot of fans, and hopefully we can keep improving. I’m pleased with the work the guys in the team have done with me recently, and obviously now we are in better shape than we were before. Motegi is a bit of a strange track because of its hard braking, but that’s good for me and it will be interesting to see how we go there.”



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