Crutchlow: 19-second gap not acceptable

Cal Crutchlow made amends for his ninth on the grid qualifying by gaining three places on the opening lap of his home British MotoGP, aided by the big accident at turn one.

Expecting a breakaway group of five or six, the LCR Honda rider was thus poised to keep in touch with the leaders.

But hopes of a competitive showing were doomed by rear tyre problems and, while briefly able to pass Franco Morbidelli for fifth, the Englishman ultimately finished in a distant sixth position.

"I got quite a good start and took advantage of the incident at turn one, obviously we're very sorry for Dovi and hope he's okay and is going to recover well because it looked a bad crash," Crutchlow said.

"The reality of the situation was we never had the tyres underneath us today. Something happened again with the rear tyre, similar to what happened to us in Mugello. I couldn't push, had no grip from lap one and the race just got slower and slower.

"To finish 19 seconds behind the winner here is not acceptable, not from me and not from my team.

"We tried our best this weekend and we had pace, there was no doubt about that. Yesterday I was able to go one and a half seconds faster than I was at the end of the race, it’s just strange how some tyres are fine and some aren’t.

"Don’t get me wrong, it would have been difficult to win the race regardless, but I should have been a lot further up than I was.”

Despite his disappointment, Crutchlow gained points on main satellite rivals Jack Miller (Pramac Ducati) and Fabio Quartararo (Petronas Yamaha).

The Englishman is now within six points of good friend Miller, who has taken over seventh in the world championship as the top Independent rider after Quartararo's turn one accident.