In only his second MotoGP race, Britain’s Cal Crutchlow picked up his first top-ten finish at the Gran Premio bwin de España, despite a crash during the wet race.

The 25 year-old rookie started from ninth on the grid and was all set for a potential top-five position on his first visit to the Jerez circuit, when he crashed in the tricky conditions. The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider was able to continue despite his excursion into the gravel, but had lost several places to his rivals.

In the latter stages, Ben Spies crashed and then Crutchlow’s team-mate Colin Edwards suffered mechanical problems, both whilst in rostrum positions, which lifted the man from Coventry to eighth place. It was a case of what might have been though for Crutchlow, as a potential top-three finish in only his second race of his debut season had been a possibility prior to his fall.

“It was the craziest race I’ve ever been in during my life!” said Crutchlow. “It was a long race, 27 laps. It was entertaining as everything was happening. I crashed but I also finished 8th, which is one place ahead of where I started in the race. It wasn’t too bad all in all. Now we just have to build on that for the rest of the year.”


A number of riders struggled to deal with the degradation to the Bridgestone wet tyres as the race wore on, and Crutchlow said: “The rear wet tyre looked like what I have been used to racing, it looked like a slick by the end of it. With the wet conditions at the start of the race, it was perfect, but then as it started to dry up, it was more slippery. The tyres started to wear away and really wore up the tread of the tyre and made it really difficult for the 17 laps remaining. I would have preferred it to have kept raining for the whole race but with these MotoGP bikes and the Bridgestone tyres, they clear the surface water so fast but it was the same for everybody.”

“(The next round in) Estoril is going to be good as long as I can learn the circuit like I did this one, and we’ll see what I can do,” he concluded.