‘It became dangerous’ - Cal Crutchlow explains Assen MotoGP issues

LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow said he lost a lap in the MotoGP Dutch Grand Prix due to a technical issue, which forced him to pit early because “it became dangerous”.

The Briton pitted at the end of the second lap of last Sunday’s race at Assen, before rejoining at the back of the field.

He remained last and took the chequered flag a lap down.

Speaking after the race, Crutchlow says he battled a technical issue from the first lap, though he remained tight-lipped on what was actually wrong with his Honda.

“I had a technical problem from the first lap,” he said.

“I tried to ride around it, try to understand what was going on.

“Then it became dangerous because I had people behind me.

“So then I came in, we fixed it in the pitlane, I went back out, and then it happened again.

“Then I managed to fix it, but rode the race with it basically. Or without it even, the whole race.

“I was happy, the team was super happy. I kept a good pace with what I had.

“I'm disappointed because I would have beat Augusto [Fernandez], without a shadow of a doubt. And potentially even been able to stay with some of the other riders.”

“I got hooked up with Toprak on the straight…”

Crutchlow also revealed he was involved in a chaotic start to the race, which included getting tangled up with Toprak Razgatlioglu’s Yamaha.

“There was a bit of a mess here and there,” he added.

“I got hooked up with Toprak on the start, and we were riding down the straight completely hooked on each other's bikes.

“And I said, ‘I'm out of this’. So I just shut the throttle. And it was amazing because I shut the throttle and I could see everybody piling into turn one.

“And I said, ‘You boys have it’. And I'm going wide, and I'm going to cut back. I went wide, cut back, took five places. I was well happy. I was like, this is great.

“Honestly, I think I would have stayed with the guys ahead for quite a while today.

“I had the soft rear, it felt good. And in the end, the race I did completely alone with no risk.

“Because the last thing I wanted was to crash when I've already pulled in the pits.

“There was no need for me to be out there. So I'm not racing for anything. So I took it easy. I never pushed in the race.

“I just rode my race, tried to understand and got another race distance.

“That was the only reason why I stayed out was to get a race distance. But yeah, we had unfortunately a small technical problem.

“And that's the way it goes in racing. It's nobody's fault. It's just one of those things.”