Bautista says he and his team expected to finish higher than eighth at Misano

Bautista had put his bike on the middle of the third row in qualifying, but rather than progress through the field he found himself falling down the order as spots of rain dented his confidence in the early laps.

He eventually fought back to finish where he had started in eighth, but had lost too much time at the start to bridge the gap to either Valentino Rossi in seventh or the trio of riders fighting for fourth ahead.

"Eighth is not a bad result but we expected more this weekend," the Spaniard reflected.

"I didn't have a lot of confidence on the first lap because it was raining a little bit and I didn't feel like I could push too much - so I lost some positions and distance from the first group.

"When I got into my rhythm the group was far away and I couldn't follow them. We have done a good job during the races, but we still have to improve in qualifying to be nearer the front of the grid.

"We all expected more than eighth, but we are confident that we can do better in the next races."