Dovizioso fulsome in praise for team-mate Cal

Andrea Dovizioso was denied a sixth podium finish in eight races by his Tech 3 Yamaha team-mate Cal Crutchlow at Brno, but the Italian was gracious in his assessment of the British star's performance today.

Dovizioso, who will join Ducati next season, was unable to reel in Crutchlow despite his best efforts and had to settle for a comfortable fourth place on the YZR-M1 after holding off an early challenge from Valentino Rossi.

"I was confident going into the race that I could fight for the podium. But there is no doubt that Cal did a better job than me and I congratulate him for getting his first podium in MotoGP," said Dovizioso.

"When I was close to him in the early laps I could see he gained some time in corner entry and he had more corner speed than me.

"But he lost on the exit but for sure he was gaining more than he lost.

"I spent the whole race pushing at my maximum to recover the gap to him but it was not possible," added Dovi.

"He was very consistent and I couldn't push him into making a mistake, so he did a great job."

Dovizioso was satisfied with his result but feels there is still plenty of room for improvement as he aims to close out the season with more rostrum success.

"We have finished inside the top four again today but this result demonstrates that we still have some margin to improve," he said.

"We have collected a lot of data and we will analyse that now to understand how we can be faster."