Tech 3's Andrea Dovizioso thrilled to get among factory riders with Catalunya podium

The Italian moved into the satellite Tech 3 Yamaha squad for the 2012 season and has showed strongly so far, only once finishing outside the top five - when he fell in the wet at Le Mans, eventually finishing seventh.

After holding off a late Casey Stoner charge to seal third at Catalunya, Dovizioso says his maiden podium for Yamaha is an important landmark for both him and his satellite squad.

"To be in the middle of the factory riders is beautiful," Dovizioso said. "I'm really happy, and my feeling with the Yamaha improves all the time.

"There is a passion and we're pushing all the time to get to our best potential and we are close. Our pace was really close to the fastest riders so this is a big improvement.

"It's also [an] important [result]. We are working well and to fight here with the factory bikes means we made good progress."

Dovizioso thanked both Tech 3 and Yamaha for the result, and said he was hoping the team could continue to improve in the future - starting with Monday's test at the Catalunya circuit.

"I want to say thank you to team and Yamaha, we made a really good job," he said.

"I felt something different under acceleration today so I want to understand in the test tomorrow if we can do something [to develop the bike further]. We are improving all the time, and we will see if we can improve again in the next race."