Repsol Honda's Andrea Dovizioso reckons that his debut win at yesterday's Donington Park MotoGP race has been a massive confidence booster even though leading the race was scary.

Dovi had been following series leader Valentino Rossi but he crashed out on cold tyres at half-distance so the Italian was handed the lead and had to assess the track conditions while riding at the front.

“It’s a fantastic feeling to win my first MotoGP race because this is the top series in the world with the best riders and so to win is a fantastic emotion. I’m very pleased with my performance today as the conditions were so difficult," said Dovizioso.

"It was like three different races - riding hard at the start when it was nearly dry, following Valentino as it got wetter, and then judging the pace once I was in front. I rode well in every section and managed the very tricky situation, so it’s really satisfying. This is also important for my confidence after the last three races. In the first three laps I took a lot of risks to maintain my position with the leaders because the tyres need two or three laps to get up to temperature.

"Once I was following Valentino it was quite easy because it’s not so difficult to follow someone in these conditions since the leader has to judge where it’s wet and where it’s dry. But when he fell it was clear from his crash that the tyres were very cold and this was scary because now I had to set the pace.

"Colin and Randy closed the gap quickly in the last five laps and at this point I was being careful and wasn’t pushing to the limit, but in the final two laps I pushed as hard as I could and they weren’t able to get close enough to try and pass. I’m so happy with this win, and we’ll use it to move forward. The important thing is to fight with the best riders in normal dry conditions so me and the team will work really hard to repeat this victory in the dry.”