Claudio Domenicali, Ducati's CEO, was also present at the inauguration of the new Ducati store in Rome. The opening of the new store could not have come at a better time, with the Borgo Panigale bikes leading both the MotoGP and the SBK championships.

"I'm surprised by both results," revealed Domenicali in the video interview you can see above. "We didn't expect to be leading the MotoGP World Championship after two tracks, like Termas and Austin, which were difficult for both the bikes and Dovi. I have to admit, we had a bit of luck. In SBK, we knew we had a competitive bike and rider, but we also knew that Rea is very hard to beat. Bautista ended up being more difficult than predicted."

In racing, however, you can never sleep on your laurels, and both seasons are still very long. Certainly, the most complicated undertaking is Dovizioso's, who is called on to beat Marquez.

"I'm sure to beat him on the track because we did it no more than three races ago and many times in the past," underlined Domenicali. "Just like I'm sure that Marc is an extraordinarily talented rider, but he also feels the pressure. So, the more his opponents intervene, the more he'll make mistakes."

A very challenging tug-of-war but, lately, Ducati has become accustomed to parrying blows that come a bit from all sides. In SBK, the opponents say that the Panigale V4R is too similar to a MotoGP. In the World Championship, its opponents tried to beat it, even through appeals.



"Developing technologies is the reason why we race. I don't see anything wrong with it," the CEO smiled. "As for the complaint, we were bitter about the way it was done, against all three of our drivers, and this shows that the spirit was not to have a clarification on the regulation but to create the utmost damage in terms of points."

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