Cal Crutchlow upbeat on return to top six in Misano

Cal Crutchlow salvaged a hard fought sixth place out of a tough Misano MotoGP weekend to put his recent miserable home race experience at Silverstone behind him.

The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider appeared to be suffering a hangover from a crash-strewn British Grand Prix weekend when he laboured outside of the top 10 for most of practice with a lack of front-end confidence.

The 27-year-old rediscovered his form to take fifth in qualifying and he looked certain to hold that position at the end of an epic duel with German Stefan Bradl.

Split by no more than a couple of tenths for the entire 28-lap race, LCR Honda rider Bradl seized fifth on the final lap, but Crutchlow was still relieved and satisfied to finish inside the top six for only the second time in the previous five races.

The result keeps Crutchlow 22-points clear of Bradl in the hunt to finish top non-factory rider in this year’s championship and he said: “The Honda is stronger than the Yamaha in braking everywhere. Stefan was just biding his time and if you look at somebody for 28 laps right behind them you can normally work out where you want to pass.

I didn’t have the chance to follow anybody because I got dropped by the first group immediately but I was comfortable in my pace. My lap times for the whole race were consistently better than my best time in practice. I never made any mistake with a guy right behind me for the whole race and that’s encouraging. I didn’t do too much right but I didn’t do anything wrong and I think we can take some positives from it. I felt I was riding the bike fine in the race because it was difficult to have plus zero on my board for 28-laps and get passed on the last lap. I knew where he was faster because I could here his bike but I am still happy.”