Dovizioso excited by Lorenzo challenge

Andrea Dovizioso insists that he is not intimidated by the arrival of three-time MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo at Ducati.

The Italian, who is preparing for his fifth season at Ducati, earned his second career win at Sepang last year. Lorenzo's long tenure with Yamaha yielded 44 MotoGP victories, and Dovizioso said that he is looking forward to testing himself against the Spaniard.

"Scared? No, I'm excited," said Dovizioso. "For sure, it will be a big challenge and it will be very difficult, because I know Jorge very well.

"But I think I'm in a good situation now in my career. I'm really happy to have this challenge – I'm 30 years old but still I can learn something from everybody and, in this case, from Jorge.

"For sure, he has a different attitude, a different approach to the weekend like every rider, but I'm open and I'm happy to analyse him, to study him, to improve. And I think everybody has margin to improve, and I can be even more competitive than last year."

Dovizioso finished fifth in last year's standings, two places behind Lorenzo.