Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso has adopted an optimistic attitude to this weekend’s penultimate MotoGP round at Sepang, saying the title race is still open even though he is 33 points behind leader Marc Marquez.

Dovi had a nightmare at Phillip Island which all but nailed his title hopes’ coffin lid shut, however the Italian won in Malaysia last year so he is thinking happy thoughts.

“It’s an important weekend and we have to try and get the maximum. We know it is difficult but the championship is open and we have to try everything, so we will see in the weekend which weather we shall have in the race,” said Dovizioso, speaking at Sepang.

“It’s easy to have strange conditions and we have to be ready in any conditions. We approached last weekend to try to win the race and we’ll not change that; we know how much it is important to work in the right way during the practice.

“Let’s see the weather – if we have a chance to work in every practice in the dry, to try to be ready and try to take the right choice for the tyres.”