ꦡAndrea Dovizioso felt he lost a front row start w🤪hen he fell during the closing minutes of a wet MotoGP qualifying at Sepang.

Nonetheless, the Ducati star feels he is one of three - or possibly five - riders with the dry pace to fight for victory in 🐷Sunday's M💛alaysian race.

"I have a good feeling in the dry," Dovizioso sa𒅌id. "Today Maverick and Marc improved a little bit in their speed so I think we are very, very simila💝r.

"I think we are theꦦ three riders with a similar pace and we are able to fight for the victory.

"Valentino is fast and Zarco improved in 🏅the afternoon also,ܫ so they have a chance to stay in the group also.

"My goal is to win the race, but I want to think about the championship and if I can close second positꦛion here I would prefer that.

"So I will race to win, but also I want to look at Maverick 🐬and Va🌺lentino."

Dovizioso starts the penultimate round 15 points clear of Valentino Rossi and 30 ahead of the other Movistar Yama꧑ha of Maverick Vinales in the fight for title runner-up behind Marc Marquez.

The #4 was fighting for 'best of the res🌱t' in qualifying behind the Repsol Honda ridꦦer when he lost control of his GP18 (pictured).

Second place instead went𒊎 to Johann Zarco, who will now start on pole position following the grid penalty for Marquez. Dovizioso had to settle for fifth in qualifying, meaning he will now line-up at the head of the second row.

"I was a bit too fast but the reason why [I fell] is the front tyre is very hard," Dovizioso explained. "On straight braking 🧸we are able to brake very strong, but on the lean angle noboꦇdy has a lot of grip.

"Everybody has to manage that and it was very difficult as you don’t hav♛e a lot of feedback. So I did a small ൲mistake, but in that situation I was able to make the minimum second position.

"When you have 15 minutes it is difficult to have the perfect feeling in the wet, but the feeling wasꦆ good and I am happy ꦇif we have to race in the wet tomorrow."

Dovizioso won last year's race in wet conditions, but the chances ♔of a dry 2018 grand prix have increased after Sunday's race was moved two hours earlier to avoid the afternoon storms that tormented qualifying.

"It is better to race 𝄹early a🐻s the rain starts after lunch. You never know at what time but normally later is worse," Dovizioso said.

"Sometimes it is possible to change, sometimes not. For Europe [live TV viewers] it is worse to race at that time, we know, we don’t have to ask just about th😼e racing as we also have to follow the TV.

"So we are trying to speak in a mature way [a꧙bout keeping the earlier start time for future flyaway rou💎nds]."