Red Bull KTM's Pol Espargaro missed the Jerez MotoGP podium by 0.922s as he came home sixth after a race-long tussle with Andrea Dovizioso.

The Spaniard, who moves into the Repsol Honda team next season, equalled KTM's best dry-weather result - the same rider at Le Mans last year - but said it was painful to be that close to a podium and not be able to grab it.

"I feel very happy. We did a good job. When you're so close - just a second - from the podium, you're happy, but it also hurts. When you're so close, it's painful," said Espargaro.

"I tried so hard to get past Dovi, but he accelerated me straight away. But I had no chance to stay at least two corners ahead of him.

"That might have changed the race for me, so I could have cooled the front tyre a little and got some air. I was behind Dovi the whole race.

"I fought for fourth place here. We'll have another race here in a few days. The potential of the motorcycle seems to be very good.

"So far, Jerez has not been a good track for us. We have had hard times here and are therefore all surprised at the result. We were strong here all weekend, but we're still in Jerez. We'll still be on tracks where we were already strong, like Spielberg and Le Mans - I'm looking forward to that.”