Dovizioso frustrated over lost points

The Italian fell out of the top six in the early stages on his Honda, before battling back to sixth and chasing down the Tech 3 Yamaha of American rider Ben Spies.

The pair duked it out over the final few tours before Dovizioso fell off just a handful of corners from the finish.

"Of course I'm really disappointed things ended in this way because my pace in the middle of the race was very good and the battle with Spies was exciting," said Dovizioso, who started the weekend third in the standings but has now fallen to fifth behind Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi.

"The crash happened between Turns 12 and 13. Spies went in too deep and I tried to overtake him on the inside. That meant I was carrying a little bit more speed through the change of direction and as I flicked from left to right I high-sided.

"I'm really disappointed because we have lost third position in the championship, which is still our target even though scoring zero points today makes this more difficult."

Despite his accident, Dovizioso enjoyed his battle with Spies and is confident of bouncing back for the next round at Motegi after showing a good turn of speed at Aragon.

"Early in the race I made some mistakes and lost contact with the front group, but actually our pace in the middle of the race was very fast," he added.

"During the battle with Spies we overtook each other three or four times in the last laps and it was fun, but the crash spoiled the day. However, we'll come back fighting at Motegi because we've proved we have the pace to be strong."