Dovizioso would not go down without a fight

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Bengaluru, October 25: Despite the pendulum having swung in Marc Marquez's favour following his victory in the previous round in Australia, Andrea Doviziso is high on conidence as he heads to Malaysia for the penultimate round of FIM MotoGP World Championship.

The Italian's confidence stems from the fact that he has won at the Sepang circuit last year.

Then, it was his first win since 2009. Now, it's the first of six in a year - and a tough weekend at Phillip Island does little to diminish the Ducati rider's claim to the crown.

Following the Australian GP, Dovizioso is still second in the championship standings, but he is now 33 points behind Marquez and 17 points ahead of Yamaha's Maverick Vinales.

"At this point of the season it would've been better to be closer to Marquez in the standings, but now we've to think of Malaysia, where quite simply we'll have to give it our all," Dovizioso said.

In Phillip Island, Dovizioso, started from the fourth row of the grid. He was unable to gain any positions at the start and he crossed the line at the end of the opening lap in eleventh place.

The Italian then braked very late for the first turn and dropped down to twentieth place. Despite a good recovery, which took him back up to eleventh place, Dovizioso was not able to make up any more places and at the final corner of the last lap he was overtaken by Scott Redding and Dani Pedrosa, finishing a dismal thirteenth.

"It was a big disappointment and we really lost a lot of points in the championship. For sure my mistake in the early stages of the race complicated things and maybe even the choice of rear tyre was not the best one," Dovizioso rued.

But he has promised a fightback in Malaysia as evident from his tweet.

With the FIM MotoGP World Championship clearly indicating that it is going be a two-horse race for the title, Dovizioso won't go down without a fight, and Malaysia is his final stand.