Another top five for Dovi, feels 'pity' for Spies

Andrea Dovizioso was happy to extract the maximum from his Monster Tech 3 Yamaha with a run to fourth place at the United States Grand Prix, though he admits it was a shame to see Ben Spies crashing out in front of him.

The Italian came into the Laguna Seca race having played down his hopes of maintaining his run of podiums and after getting by team-mate Cal Crutchlow at the start, looked settled in fifth as he battled for fourth with factory Yamaha rider Spies.

Losing time to the American when negotiating the dust kicked up by James Ellison's crash, Dovizioso says he was winding up for a renewed battle with Spies when the American fell ahead of him, promoting the Italian to a fourth place finish he would retain to the chequered flag.

Marking his eighth top five finish in ten races, Dovizioso felt pity for his Yamaha counterpart following his latest set-back.

"It would have been nice to have kept the podium sequence going for a fourth race in a row but we have to be very satisfied with the result because it was the best we could achieve when you consider the pace the top three have shown all weekend.

"Ben was doing a fantastic race and credit to him because he wasn't in the best physical condition. It is a big pity that he crashed because at the end of the race I am sure we could have had a really nice battle. It wasn't easy to stay with him and I was pushing really hard but when Ellison crashed there was a lot of sand on the track and I hit it and lost some time.

"It is a positive result and this busy period in the Championship has been very successful but we have to say the gap to the top three was very big. We head to the summer break confident for the rest of the season and ready to return in Indianapolis refreshed and looking forward to improving our performance."

Classified a comfortable fourth in the standings, Dovizioso already has double the amount of points Spies has achieved in 2012 thus far.