Rueful Dovizioso felt rostrum was possibility

Andrea Dovizioso 'expected much more' after he limped over the line in 13th place in the Malaysian MotoGP following a spill on lap 10.

The Italian had been chasing Casey Stoner in third place when he fell but was able to remount his Tech 3 Yamaha and finish the race.

Dovizioso, though, was bitterly disappointed with how the weekend panned out at Sepang, where he felt he had serious chance of finishing on the rostrum.

"It's a real pity that the rain came this afternoon," he said.

"We did such a good job during the weekend with the bike in the dry and we started strong from the first session, so to find these really bad conditions was unlucky for us today.

"I was ready for a really hard race in hot weather and I'm sure I would have been fighting for the podium in the dry.

"We can't change it and I certainly didn't have the same good feeling in the wet."

Dovi felt he was struggling on the exit of corners on the satellite Yamaha although he was confident on the brakes despite the slippery track surface.

"I had a big slide off the start and lost some places but I managed to get into a fast pace quite quickly," he said.

"It is very difficult to start a race in the rain with no other time on track in the wet all weekend. I was quite fast but I was lacking rear grip.

"I could brake very strong but I struggled at exit of the corner," he added.

"I pushed really hard trying to pass Casey and I lost the front without braking while at maximum angle.

"I still managed to score some points and finish the race but we expected much more and I am determined to bounce back quickly next week in Australia."