Dovizioso: 'Small mistake cost me dearly'

Andrea Dovizioso's hopes of claiming a fourth MotoGP win of the season, and delaying Marc Marquez's title celebrations, disappeared on the penultimate lap in Japan.

Starting from pole, Dovizioso quickly fended off Marquez's first attempt to lead and it took until four laps to go for the Honda rider to become established at the front.

Dovizioso remained in Marquez's wheeltracks as the pair finally escaped from Cal Crutchlow, setting up yet another victory showdown.

But this time it was settled early, Dovizioso losing the front of this Ducati at the Turn 10 hairpin, just before the back straight.

"I’m obviously pretty disappointed because we wanted to win this race at all costs, but all-in-all it has been a positive weekend because we were very quick and we confirmed our competitiveness," said Dovizioso, who remounted to finish 18th.

"Even though we did a good race we were unable to make the difference against Marquez, and so I want to congratulate him because also this year he deserved to win the championship."

Explaining his fall, Dovizioso said he asked too much of the front tyre while trying to prepare for a good exit onto the back straight.

"Pity about the crash: I didn’t overdo it but simply tried to prepare for the exit of the turn in the best possible way in order to attack him and I made a small mistake that cost me dearly.”

Dovizioso's fourth race accident of the season has left him just nine points clear of Valentino Rossi in the fight for title runner-up heading into next weekend's Australian MotoGP, where Ducati struggled last season.

Meanwhile, team-mate Jorge Lorenzo missed the Motegi race and will return to Europe to have his wrist injury from Thailand examined further. The triple MotoGP champion will be replaced by Alvaro Bautista at Phillip Island, but aims to return for Sepang on November 2-4.