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. But I'm sure that the direction we have taken over the three days (in Valencia) is the right one.”