Crutchlow annoyed with Lorenzo, Vinales

Cal Crutchlow will start fourth on the grid in Sunday's Argentina MotoGP despite tripping over slow-moving riders on two of his qualifying laps.

Without those incidents the CWM LCR Honda rider is confident he could have set a 1m 37s, which would have put him at least second on the grid to world champion Marc Marquez.

The Englishman had already abandoned one flying lap due to a mistake of his own when he found Factory Yamaha star Jorge Lorenzo ahead of him on his next attempt.

"I was really annoyed with Lorenzo... He looked behind him three times. He saw me coming. In the middle sector he started to push and in the last sector he slowed up a little.

"But I was still pushing so I caught him. I had to avoid him and go really wide. I just missed the entrance to the pit lane. That's how wide I was. I was disappointed with that because he knew I was coming.

"Then in the last lap again I went to push and Vinales had finished his lap and just cruised around the first sector, on line. They need to get off the line if they are not doing a lap."

Lorenzo later said that he didn't know Crutchlow had been held up and suggested he also slowed down due to Vinales.

"I don't know. I was with Maverick. Maverick slowed down and I had to close the throttle. I didn't see Cal, but probably it was Maverick who closed the throttle in the middle of the corner," said the double world champion.

Crutchlow continued: "I don't want to be complaining. We finished fourth and that's the way it is. But we know from our sector data that if I had put them all together we'd have been in the '37s, which is positive. But we weren't and that's it."

Like the other Factory class Honda riders, Crutchlow admitted he hasn't ruled out racing with the softer of his rear tyre options (the hard compound) rather than the new extra-hard preferred by the Yamahas.

"Tomorrow we need to work hard because we have a tyre choice to make. Maybe we can run the softer tyre in the rear now the track has cleaned up," he confirmed. "But I think it will be difficult for a race distance."

Crutchlow explained: "The Honda doesn't have the grip of the Yamaha. And it doesn't have the grip of the Ducati. So once we lose the grip it's really difficult to ride for the rest of the race.

"The [extra-hard] tyre is dropping after five laps. I know the softer tyre is [dropping] as well, but what you gain probably in those five laps you might be able to maintain for the rest of the race. So we are looking at all options."

The new extra-hard is only available to the Factory class Hondas and Yamahas, the other riders having the softer Open class tyre allocation.

Despite frequently finishing second to Marquez in practice sessions, including FP3 in Argentina, Crutchlow has finished seventh in both races so far held.