Source: Supplied.

Andrea Dovizioso says he wanted to win at all costs in yesterdays Japanese MotoGP encounter at Motegi, however believes he wasn’t riding above his head when he made a costly mistake that ultimately ruled him out of the race.

The Italian ace led for 20 of the 24 laps before being passed by Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda), attempting to regain the lead two laps later before losing the front end at turn 10.

The error meant Marquez was able to seal his seventh world championship, although if the Ducati Team ace had maintained the lead across the line, the title fight would continue for at least another week.

“I’m obviously pretty disappointed because we wanted to win this race at all costs,” Dovizioso explained. “But all in all it has been a positive weekend because we were very quick and we confirmed our competitiveness.

“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. 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 holds down second the MotoGP World Championship rankings as the series heads to Phillip Island this weekend for the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.