Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso struggled to sixth place in Sunday's second Jerez MotoGP after losing front-end feeling on his Desmosedici GP20.

The Italian, who is out of contract at the end of this season, had found a little extra corner speed with a new setup in Spain was that was negated on lap one.

“Even if I started 14th and only finished tenth after the first lap, I would have had the chance to fight for the podium if I had the speed we had expected," said Dovizioso, speaking at the track.

"But we had a new problem. Well, maybe the others had bigger problems, but when I released the brakes, I didn't manage to take the speed with me in the corner.

"We improved on the brakes and on Sunday morning we took a step in steering behavior. I was really happy after the change because we were on the right track.

"We knew the setup might not be perfect because we didn't have enough data to perfectly match the electronics for the afternoon conditions. But we did a good job.

"However, I noticed straight away in the first lap that I had no feeling for the front in the corner, and that prevented me from pushing - whether in the fast or slow corners. »

«We have to find out whether it was a tire problem or a consequence of the set-up. It won't be easy, but we have to understand it. Because that will make the difference when it comes to making the right decisions for Brno."