Polesitter Andrea Dovizioso feared his qualifying strategy was wrong when he realised the rest of the field had gone out on hard tyres and he was on softs

But the Ducati Team rider battled on and set himself a decent time before coming in to try with the hard.

And with just two laps to make it count he managed to pull it out of the bag to take pole ahead of tomorrow’s MotoGP race at Sepang.

“It was a very difficult to qualify because of the rain and also because of the asphalt,” explained the Ducati Team rider.

“The grip is pretty good but it didn’t become dry like normal because there was some wet parts in the lines so it was very difficult to make the line as you want.

At the end of qualifying the water was almost zero so you have to adapt to every condition. It wasn’t easy but we did a great job, I’m happy.

“My strategy was to not stop and to make the qualifying with a soft but then I knew almost everybody had the hard so I thought maybe my strategy was wrong.

“But I was able to make a really good lap time in the first lap and I didn’t push 100 per cent but I feel in the entry the movement was too much and I couldn’t make the second or the third lap.”

The Italian made a late dash back to the garage and switched rubber, and it was to be the right decision.

“I decide to come in the box too late because I didn’t use the short cut and that give me the possibility to make just two fast laps with the hard tyre,” he added.

“The first one for sure I was able to improve the lap time but the second one was enough to keep the pole position so I’m really happy about that.”