Factory Ducati MotoGP rider Andrea Dovizioso said that he was left confused as to what happened during today’s Malaysian MotoGP at the Sepang International Circuit, which saw him finish sixth, eleven seconds behind race winner Marc Marquez.

The Italian started on the second row of the grid and despite finding himself towards the sharp end of the grid in the early stages, Dovizioso soon went backwards and never ever looked like he could challenge at the front.

Dovizioso said that whilst his two previous wins came in the wet, his testing pace led him to think he would be much more competitive than he was.

“Normally it is a good track for us,” said Dovizioso. “But we never did a good race in the dry, everybody forgets that we did two victories in the wet.

“It is true in the practice, and in the winter test, our pace was really good so we don’t really know what happened in the race.

“Ducati haven’t had a special result for a long time, in the dry here so I think there is a technical reason.

“The difference from practice was too big. I don’t want to say something clear on what happened because for me something was wrong, but I don’t know. I had to ride in a completely different way.

“For sure the conditions were a bit hotter than Friday and Saturday but the difference was too much.

“From the beginning I couldn’t brake, I couldn’t make speed in the middle of the corners. I had to ride in a different way, which was strange. I couldn’t make the lap time. I was able to make zero-low with a used tyre [in practice] , but in the race it was difficult to me to make one-fives.”