Andrea Dovizioso’s second year in MotoGP has come with highs and lows, a first premier class victory at Donington followed by the disappointment of being beaten to fifth place in the Championship in the last event at Valencia.

An impressive season in 2008 with the satellite Scot Honda squad saw the 23 year old taken in by Repsol Honda for the 2009 year, which finished with Dovizioso just missing out on fifth place in the overall rankings to Colin Edwards by a single point.

Dovizioso is sure to take his experience into effect for next season, in which he has already made steps towards with the post season testing at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit.

“This year’s results have not been what everybody expected, starting with me,” states Dovizioso. “I didn’t feel comfortable enough with the bike to battle with the front pack, and the problem is that we can’t make any significant changes to the bike during the season, so Honda focused on preparing next year's bike. Unfortunately, I couldn’t up my speed during the year and sixth place in the championship is nowhere near my dream. It has been an important year for me, to learn with the future in mind, and I know that Honda is going to work hard. I’m sure that next year, although we have to make up lost ground, all of us will increase our performance.”

Dovizioso also comments on the overall season and the switch to racing a factory machine.

“The best moment was obviously the win at Donington Park, and the worst I would say in Portugal; we had a lot of problems that weekend,” he says. “There is a huge difference in all aspects. With a satellite team, you focus on using the full power of the bike, but in a factory team, you also have to think about how to improve it and that’s not easy.”

The former 125cc World Champion used Valencia testing to try the 2010 prototype of his RC212V with good results, he looks to further improvements at the next testing at Sepang in February.

“Although everything is not fixed, there has been a change,” he says. “We’ll have to continue working on it for Malaysia, and also on the engine, to have better control of the bike. I feel optimistic, and of course I think that it'll be better than, for example, our last race in Valencia. We have a lot of work ahead of us and lots of changes to make before the season starts, so we'll have to wait.

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This week’s Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana testing has a number of competitors trialling fresh engines, with Toni Elías uniting in the sessions at the Ricardo Tormo track, thanks to of Fausto Gresini who has given him the opportunity to test a new Gresini Moriwaki Moto2 prototype.

Although ending seventh this season in the MotoGP rankings, Elías has not been able to hange on to his San Carlo Honda Gresini race in the premier class, due to the incoming of Marco Simoncelli and the return of Marco Melandri, however there is a chance that Elías could race for Gresini in the fresh Moto2 class next season.

Collaborating with Japanese company Moriwaki, Gresini has been testing their Moto2 prototype with Xavier Simeon this week at Valencia, on Tuesday Elías also tested the engine.

Following his initial session with the bike, Elías comments on his future, “It is not clear yet, we are negotiating, but I have a contract with the Gresini team until the end of November.” Referring to the test overall, he adds, “Fausto has given me the opportunity to try the Moto2 bike on Tuesday and Wednesday just for my information and for the information of Moriwaki. I really enjoyed it, the bike is slower than MotoGP but it is fun and it has been a good experience.”

Team manager Gresini says, “In Moto2 we did some more tests this morning with Simeon to allow him more time on the bike and to see how good the kid is, and then in the afternoon we let Elías out on it, having signed a pre-contract agreement with him until the end of November.

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After his impressive race to seventh spot on Sunday at Valencia, Ben Spies tested initially with his fresh team Monster Yamaha Tech 3 on Monday at the Ricardo Tormo track, tasting his first sample of life in the pit of Herve Poncharal’s team, alongside fellow Texan Colin Edwards.

The American’s best time was the sixth fastest on Monday, he was only 0.8s behind quickest racer Casey Stoner’s pace and a huge 0.6s better than his own quickest lap in Sunday’s event.

The 25 year old finished 50 laps which made it a positive and productive first day with Tech 3. He states, “I was obviously on a different bike but with the same setting that I raced on and it felt good. I improved on my qualifying time so it was a positive and productive day. I really just focused on doing a couple of things different with my style and in the last two sessions I tried to do some things very different and it worked.”

“I was slowly able to chip away at the lap times, so it is encouraging that I'm getting faster and more comfortable without even making any changes to the set-up of the bike.

 

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Honda’s CRF450X has taken the nation’s most prestigious desert racing trophy, the Australian Safari, for the past three years, anyone can now add the bonus of a free toolbox and ramp priced at $799.

The same deal is due on the CRF250X, creating a perfect opportunity to grab one of Honda’s engines.

The toolbox promotion is availabe between now and December 31, 2009.