Rueful Crutchlow clings to Motegi positives
Tech 3 Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow preferred to focus on the positives after he was denied a potential rostrum finish when his M1 ran out of fuel on the final lap at Motegi.
It was a crushing blow for the British MotoGP rider, who was lining up an attacking move on Alvaro Bautista when his satellite Yamaha spluttered to a halt.
The pair had wowed fans in Japan with a thrilling battle to set up a last-lap showdown, but it wasn't to be as cruel misfortune ended Crutchlow's race in disappointing fashion.
However, the 26-year-old chose to look on the bright side after a golden chance to seize his second podium of the campaign went begging.
"All I can do after the way the race finished is take the positives from this weekend and there are a lot," said Crutchlow.
"This isn't a good track for me and I was struggling on Friday, yet I managed to get on the front row of the grid again and for the whole race I was fighting for the podium.
"The improvements we made from Friday were massive and I am proud of the job that my crew and myself did this weekend.
"But there is no denying that I am disappointed as well because I was confident I could have passed Alvaro on the last lap," he added.
"It wouldn't have been easy because he was riding very well and it was a very enjoyable battle with him.
"I had a lot of fun and I'm sure he did too and it is just unfortunate that we couldn't take the fight right to the very end."
Crutchlow's aim of finishing fifth in the championship standings has also suffered a significant setback after his unfortunate DNF in Japan.
"Even fourth would have been good for my hopes of finishing fifth in the championship but I lost a lot of points today.
"We knew fuel consumption was going to be critical. I was very fast and for almost the whole race I was on my own with no slipstream, so I used more fuel," Crutchlow added.
"I've proven again though that I can fight with the best in the world and now I'm looking forward to Sepang.
"I had two good tests there earlier this year and I'm excited to go back and try to battle for the top three again."
