Crutchlow on Rossi move: I got my comeuppance!

Cal Crutchlow was upbeat when reflecting on Sunday’s MotoGP thriller at Brno, stating rear tyre wear was the reason his podium challenge fell away in the race’s final third and joking “I got my comeuppance” after Valentino Rossi nabbed fourth place from him at the final corner.

The 32-year old had been strong in that sector of the track all race long, with a strong move on Johann Zarco coming at turn 14 early on. Crutchlow was well placed in fourth starting the final lap, but he revealed a crucial mistake at turn three allowed Rossi back into play.

In the end, to finish fifth and 2.6s from the podium was another positive to take from the weekend.

“Midway through the race, I expected a podium, because I was there, with half a second gap,” said Crutchlow after his sixth top six finish of the year. “But I've complained all year about the front tyre, but the front tyre today was fantastic. The rear tyre gave up the ghost. I had no rear tyre left.

“And it wasn't that I had no rear tyre left, it's just that the other bikes were better. Marc looked like he was saving the tyre, or able to ride in a different way, but I had a lot of floating in the middle of the corners, and I was unable to open the throttle, I had to wait a long time to open the throttle because I was still trying to control the rear slide in the middle of the corners.

“There's only one difference between Marc's bike and mine, and this made the difference. I think this is the one area where that difference with his bike is better than mine. That's why they've got it. I tried to do the best with what I had today, and I did.

“I pushed hard, I battled well, but I had no rear tyre left at the end of the race. I had a more used rear tyre because of that reason, because I have less grip. And then the last couple of laps I had some pumping with the rear tyre.

“I had a decent enough gap on Valentino on the last lap, but I made a big mistake in Turn 3. Then, he just put the rest of the lap together and passed me into the last corner. He made a lunge, perfect, exactly what I had been doing to everyone else in the race, and he did it to me in the last corner, so I suppose I got my comeuppance!

“I tried to square it off. I hadn't been on the inside kerb the whole race, because we don't really use it. And then I looked at it and thought, I've got to go onto it, but it was full of mud from the tractors, and I couldn't move on it. It just spun and didn't go anywhere, or else I would have drove him to the line.”

On the positives of the weekend, Crutchlow reflected, “Another positive today for my team and the way that I look at my result is that we hammered Dani again. He's been strong all weekend, he was strong here at the test a couple of weeks ago, and we beat him again today.

“So that's another positive from our point of view. We have to look at our own goals sometimes, that are not just about being on the podium. I'm disappointed not to be on the podium, because I felt that I wanted to be there again this weekend. I was in the battle, and we didn't finish too far away from it.

“But if you look on the positive side of things, we've been … I don't like to say top satellite team, because I don't look at the satellite riders as satellite teams, as you know, Zarco is on basically a factory bike, Petrucci is definitely on a factory bike, I'm on a bike very, very close to the factory bike, if not the factory bike. But it's good for my team. And it's good to beat some factory riders today.”