Andrea Dovizioso says practice work paved way to Czech Grand Prix podium

Despite qualifying on the third row, the Italian matched his best result of the season as he finished runner-up to his Honda team-mate Casey Stoner at Brno.

Dovizioso said the groundwork for his ride was laid during practice, which gave him the confidence to push even harder during the closing stages of the race.

"I'm really happy about the result because we started in seventh position," the 25-year-old Italian said. "We worked very hard in practice for the race - it was really competitive.

"I made a really great start, had a battle with Simoncelli and Lorenzo at the beginning, and then tried to catch Casey [Stoner] but made a mistake in Turn 13.

"After that I tried to manage [Jorge] Lorenzo and especially Simoncelli - I decided to push for the last five laps and I went under 1m58s so he wouldn't stay with me.

"All the people I work with ask me a lot this weekend, and I was really happy about my feeling on the bike and in the race."

Dovizioso currently lies third in the championship, and is just 23 points behind Lorenzo in second after closing the gap in Brno. He also boasts a proud record of having scored points in every race so far this season - a feat only matched by the Ducati pairing of Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden.