Cal Crutchlow took an outstanding third place in Sunday’s Grand Prix of Argentina, to seal the CWM LCR Honda Team’s first podium finish since 2013.

With the sun breaking through the clouds as the riders sat on the grid, the British rider was left with a conundrum as to which rear tyre to use, eventually deciding to use the softer option available to him.

This meant that despite running in second place behind Marc Marquez for much of the early laps, Crutchlow was forced to relinquish that spot as he conserved his tyres. He dropped as low as fifth at one point, but fought bravely to cling on to the Ducati of Andrea Iannone in front.

As Marc Marquez crashed out of the race under pressure from Valentino Rossi, the CWM LCR Honda rider knew he still had a shout of a podium, and a stunning move through the final corner sealed third place to spark huge celebrations in the team pit.

Post race thoughts

We are so pleased to get the podium, when I get to come up here it’s usually because you’re going fast! The CWM LCR Honda Team did a great job, we worked so hard for the third spot.

The plan was always to try and let Marc go at the start, hold the other guys up and then try to push at the end. I had a bad middle of the race though and the bike locked up a couple of times and I made a few mistakes, but I tried my best to hold onto some grip for the end – and it seemed to pay off!

We would have been happy with fourth place, because that’s where we started. We got lucky though because Marc crashed, but ultimately we battled for it, so we deserve it.