🎉The 2019 MotoGP season was a classic case of glass half-empty or half-full for Andrea Dovizioso and Ducati.

Or, in the words of the Italian, it was a '♓strange' championship.

On the one hand, Dovizioso set a new personal high of 269 points (over 19 rounds) to finish title runner-up for the third year in succession, by a safe 58-po𝓰int margin.

On the other hand, Dovizioso was left a massive 151 points behind a record points haulဣ by Honda's world champion Mar🐠c Marquez, while two race wins was Dovi's lowest tally since 2016.

"The goal was to fight for and win the championship. And we didn’t. We can’t be happy about that," said Dovizioso. "And ไwe can’t be too happy about still there are some points where we have to improve a bit more than what we did.

"꧑But we also have to be realistic because this se🍨ason the mix of Honda and Marc did something crazy. They scored a record number of points and they won all the titles."

The factory Ducati team was also pipped to the consolation of winning the teams' title, againꦅ by Marquez, at the Valencia finale.

"I’m disappointed about [losing the teams' championship] because I did an interview at the beginning of the season where I said Danilo and me would be the strongest [rider pairing]," Do꧃vizioso said.

"Unfortunately, Marc did everytꦬhing alone. He was to🌟o strong for everybody. On his bad day he finished second and by just a few tenths.

"൲But if you look at th🦂e championship it was strange.

"Marc scored the record po🃏ints. I did my record. And after me, there is almost 60 points to third. So this means we worked in a pretty good way."

Dovizioso also fell the least number times of any full-time rider this season, with 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:just f꧅our accidents during the 19-race weekends.

Two of those were during races, but on both occasions Dovizioso was caught up in another rider's accident, being brought down by Jorge Lorenzo in Catalunya and Fabio Quartararo at S🧔ilverstone.

"🍨I had two zeroes and it wasn’t our fault. This is a big pಞoint," he said.

"I think we have🅷 to be happy about what we did because the level is so high✃ behind me. I’m a bit surprised. There are a lot of champions with a lot of good bikes.

"I think we managed the season in a good way. It depends which way you want to see ♓it.

"For sure it’s not enough because we want to fight for the championship. In this moment we have to look at what we ༺can do to beat Marc. It’s very difficult, but it’s not impossible.

"This season Marc did something crazy and I 🅘think no one expected that. It can go in a different way [next year]. Every championship has a different story. You have to have this mentality. You have to be optimistic.

"We have to continue worki✨ng really hard. The effort of Ducati, the engineers, my crew and me… We are pushing a lot."

The stand-out moment of Dovizioso's 2019 campaign was surely a dramatic last-corner pass𒅌 on Marquez t🦋o snatch victory in Austria.

That was one of nine podiums for Dovizioso this season, matching last year's personal reco👍rd. Team-mate Danilo Petrucci also made three rostrum appearances, including one victory, while Pramac's Jack Miller sprayed champagne on five occasions.

"On one side, it's been a positive ✃season," summed-up Ducati Corse sporting director Paolo Ciabatti. "Including Jack, we achieved the highest number of podiums by Ducati ever since 2007, when we won the championship with Casey. So the GP19 has shown a high level of com🧸petitiveness."

However, after fighting Marquez until the final round in 2017, then losing out with three races to go in 2018, t✅his year's championship battle ended with four races still to go.

"It's true that Marquez won the championship a few ౠrace🍸s before the end, so obviously we cannot be totally happy," Ciabatti said.

"Last year we won seven races, the year before six and this year we only wonꦍ three. So something is missing there… but all꧋-in-all the season has been positive, even if we are not completely satisfied."

Looking ahead to 2020, "for the first time we will have four riders on the [latest] bike, not only the factory team but also Pramac Racing. So Miller a🌺nd Bagna𝓀ia will be on equal bikes to Dovizioso and Petrucci."

The new machine will aim to protect Ducati's top speed advantage after big progress by Hon🦹da this season, while&n♐bsp;also making long-awaited progress in turning ability.

"[In the past] we had an advantage in some points, especially top speed, and we could see that Honda closed the gap. So we need to keep working," Ciabatti said. "We have some areas that need more improvements thanಌ others and if we can improve the turning a little more that would be very welcome."

The 2020 MotoGP pre-season tests will both take place in February, at Sepang and thꦑen Qatar.