Dovizioso pleased with race progress

The Italian has switched from Honda's usual Showa suspension to Ohlins from this weekend, and thinks that change will pay off in future races, even if his lack of experience with the new parts compromised his Misano weekend.

"We didn't have the perfect set-up but we couldn't expect to have it with just three session with the Ohlins suspension," Dovizioso told Italia1.

"Some of the problems we had in practice worsened in the race, but that can happen. However I'm happy: my feeling with the bike has improved a bit, so let's hope we can further improve for the upcoming races."

Dovizioso spent the last part of the race in a huge battle with Suzuki's Loris Capirossi, eventually prevailing to take fourth. But he felt he could have done better relative to the leaders had he not lost ground with an early error.

"I'm very happy with today's race, because we got closer pace-wise," he said. "I could have done better but I made a mistake, after which I didn't have the speed to stay with them anymore."