JiR set top five championship target

After qualifying seventh yesterday, Dovizioso said he was confident he could run with the leaders in the race, and his confidence proved well-founded as he leapt to second on the first lap and battled with Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi for much of the distance.

"My congratulations to the team, who put Andrea in a position to do the very maximum, and congratulations to Andrea who was able to maintain the pace of the leaders during the whole race," Montiron said.

The result has elevated Dovizioso to sixth in the standings, 12 points behind fifth-placed Colin Edwards.

"He is quietly gaining positions in the world championship and the next two races at Donington and Assen are very important," Montiron added.

"He's getting so much more experience and today in Spain he raced with the leaders. As we reach the halfway point in the series we want to be inside the top five in the championship."

Dovizioso felt his fourth place in Spain was a more satisfying achievement than when he finished in the same position on his MotoGP debut in Qatar.

"Fourth is the same result as Qatar, but the value of this race is different: that was my first MotoGP race but now I have more experience, so this is why I'm looking at improved race-by race results," he said.

"The level of competition was very high but when Vale passed Stoner I lost half a second and sadly I was not able to regain this time.

"If I hadn't lost that half-second I could have fought for the podium and the final satisfaction could have been even bigger.

"Either way, I'm very happy as even when I was alone I was able to maintain a good rhythm and this is good."