Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso thinks that had he not been spat over the highside of his GP14.2 at the end of yesterday’s Aragon MotoGP, he could have challenged Jorge Lorenzo for the win.

As the rain came down, Dovizioso was in fourth place behind Lorenzo and thinking of pitting in when he crashed at turn eight with five laps to go. Leaders Marquez and Pedrosa subsequently also went down while still on slicks, leaving Lorenzo to make use of his wets to take victory.

“The end was really bad but can happen. Many riders made mistakes, I made a mistake but in that moment I try to fight for the victory as if we look at the end Lorenzo won and I was close to him. It was possible but we have to be happy about the weekend because also this track we were quite competitive and we start in the third row but we were fourth,” said Dovizioso, speaking at Aragon.

“We manage every situation in a good way and we have to be happy about that. The only negative is I didn’t feel good on the bike, the grip from the rear was quite bad from the start so this is really important for us to improve the bike and I wasn’t as competitive as I thought. However, we were fourth and maybe we fight for the victory, we have to take the positive things.

“I stayed out because on the last part of the track the rain was more than the rest, it almost didn’t rain. Second, this morning, we destroyed the tyres very quick and the rain was not so heavy. Maybe we couldn’t finish the race in a good shape so everyone try to continue. On the lap I crash, I wanted to stop, that was the strategy. Maybe the lap before it was better but on the bike it is difficult to understand every situation.”