Tito Rabat backed up his fourth on the grid start with a MotoGP bes🅠t of seventh place in Sunday's Argentina MotoGP.

The new Reale Avintia rider finished just half-a-second behind factory Ducati star and Qatar winner Andrea Dovizioso, riꦛding the latest GP18 machine.

“It was a great weekend and I’m extremely happy with the work of my team and the perfo🦂rmance of my Ducati," Rabat said.

"We d🌳id a superb job, third on Friday in dry conditions, fourth in qualifying yesterday and today I scored my best result in MotoGP in a very tricky race.

"Just to finish the race was a success in itself, but being so close to the front was fantastic. It was great to be able to ride in the front group so I saw and learned ma♈ny things.

"I’m very happy, but this is only the start. We have to continue to work in the same way and keep improving in the next ra﷽ces.”

Team-mate Xavier Simeon had been the highest placed rooki♋e with 17th in qualifying, but was left 21st and last in the race.

“I’m disappointed with the race. I made a mistake after five or six laps on the back straight an🃏d I lost con༺tact with the group that was fighting for the points.

"I felt comfortab🌜le even though I was struggling with some grip issues getting the bike into the turns and under acc🦩eleration. But I braked very hard and with the carbon brakes I did a stoppie and I had to go wide to avoid crashing.

"From then my race was finished.

"But overall I’m happy with this weekend. Yesterday I was the best rookie in qualifying, but today I expected more from the race. We learnt a lesson and now we have to analyse what happened and ♋work harde🥃r for the next race."