A mistake by Rizla Suzuki's Loris Capriossi cost him a front row start for tomorrow's MotoGP Sepang round in Malaysia.

The diminutive Italian eventually put himself in the middle of the third row but says that an error made while on his last qualifying tyre put paid to a top-three finish.

“All weekend it has been hard to be competitive with the top riders, but it has been better than we expected and in the different conditions this afternoon we were certainly up with everybody else," said Capirossi.

"The whole team made a really good effort this afternoon because we tried many things and by the end of the session we had a really good setting. It was a bit strange because we started with rain tyres and at the end we were able to use slicks.

"I made a mistake on my last tyre and that cost me some time, so I could have been a bit higher up the grid. I think we are well prepared and we will have to see what happens, but I think we can have a good race.”