Ducati Team duo Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso raced to a remarkable 1-2 finish for the Italian manufacturer at Austria’s Red Bull Ring last Sunday, marking the brand’s first win since the 2010 season.

A lot of water has passed beneath the bridge at Ducati since Casey Stoner’s Phillip Island victory, near six full years ago. Not even the great 10-time world champion Valentino Rossi, 2006 title winner Nicky Hayden or a hard-charging Cal Crutchlow could deliver on board various types of Desmosedicis. Dovizioso still hasn’t.

Dovizioso has been part of Ducati’s factory squad since 2013 and was joined by Iannone in 2015 for an all-Italian affair. The lack of wins hasn’t been through a lack of trying and there’s been a sprinkle of success along the way, however the 1-2 was a major breakthrough for Ducati Corse, led by Luigi Dall’Igna.

Source: Supplied.

Looking back to Stoner’s last hurrah with Ducati Team at Phillip Island in 2010, it was just one of many heroic home rides for the talented Aussie. It was his fourth win in a row at Phillip Island and that would extend through to his final season, albeit on a Repsol Honda in 2011 and 2012.

Stoner blasted to the Phillip Island victory in 2010 by 8.598 seconds over Jorge Lorenzo – the man who will be expected to lead Ducati to more wins in 2017 all these years later – after leading every lap. Prior to that, he dominated the entire weekend and was never headed in the race for victory.

“This feels really nice,” Stoner said at the time. “I think when I won two in a row here nobody expected me to make it three, but having done that I felt there was a lot of expectation on me today. To be fair we have been going for the win at the last four races – unfortunately I slipped off on the first lap at Sepang, but we’ve made up for that this weekend.

Source: Supplied.

“Everything has gone well for us, we have been happy with the bike from the first practice and the support from the fans has been fantastic. I have to admit that before the race I was feeling the pressure, I was more nervous than I normally am, but maybe I should be like that more often because I didn’t make mistakes!

“I am really happy with the way I rode today but every single person in the team has done a great job this weekend so my thanks go to them and I hope we can keep it going to the end of the season.”

That Phillip Island win was one of three during the season for Stoner in 2010, on his way to fourth in the world championship. The next race in Portugal he crashed out and then at Valencia he was runner-up, spelling the end of his Ducati career. And it’s taken all these years later for them to taste victory again.