Ducati riders upbeat at their favourite circuit in Motegi

Bengaluru, October 13: Ducati Team riders Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo has arrived at Japanese Grand Prix in Motegi full of confidence.

From the days when Casey Stoner was crowned world champion in 2007 with three races to go, the Ducati riders have enjoyed a good run at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit.

Loris Capirossi won three succesive raeces here from 2005, while Stoner added one more in 2010.

And cut to the present, Dovizioso likes the Japanese track a lot. The Italian has been on the Motegi podium in all three categories, winning the 125cc race in 2004, scoring two of his five MotoGP poles here and twice finishing runner-up in the top category.

#MotoGP 15th round... check out #AD04 and #JL99 stats at #Motegi! #DucatiTeam #ForzaDucati #JapaneseGP #MotoGP #Ducati pic.twitter.com/mesx811Aur

— Ducati Motor (@DucatiMotor) October 12, 2017

"Motegi is a special circuit, one of my favourites, because you've to brake very hard and I feel sure that we can be up amongst the front-runners once again on this track. I'm pretty confident because I've always scored good results here in MotoGP," said Dovizioso, who started from the second row last year and managed to hold off a recovery from Maverick Vinales to finish with a well-deserved second place.

Three-time MotoGP world champion Lorenzo too has an excellent record at Motegi in MotoGP, with four poles and three wins to his name.

"Motegi is one of my favourite tracks, and I've managed to win there on a number of occasions in the past. I think that our bike adapts well to the characteristics of this track and so we'll have a real possibility of getting a good result," said the Spaniard Lorenzo, who started on the front row last year, but then crashed out.

Did you know...?

At the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix, Casey Stoner was proclaimed MotoGP World Champion on the Ducati with three races left until the end of the season. That GP was won by his team-mate Loris Capirossi in what was to be the final victory of his sporting career.

Ducati was awarded the World Champion title at Twin Ring Motegi, which is owned by Honda.

At the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix, Capirossi acheived the first MotoGP podium for Ducati. At that time, the race was still held at the Suzuka circuit.

Three of Capirossi's eight victories with Ducati were at Motegi, all of them consecutively from 2005 to 2007.

Ducati has four victories at Motegi. In addition to the three with Capirossi, the fourth was with Stoner in 2010.

Jorge Lorenzo has three victories at Motegi, all in MotoGP (2009, 2013 and 2014).

Andrea Dovizioso is 16 points behind Marquez in the fight for the World Championship, with a total of 100 points remaining.

Dovizioso achieved the victory at the 2004 Japanese Grand Prix, the year he won the 125cc World Champion title.