Crutchlow: Fall from 12th 'a joke', Marquez 'miracle'

Cal Crutchlow felt that Marc Marquez performed a miracle by winning Sunday's Misano MotoGP, whilst describing his own fall from a lowly twelfth as 'a joke'.

Marquez snatched victory after a last-lap duel with Petronas Yamaha rookie Fabio Quartararo, but was the only Honda rider to finish in the top 13.

Crutchlow: Fall from 12th 'a joke', Marquez 'miracle'

Cal Crutchlow felt that Marc Marquez performed a miracle by winning Sunday's Misano MotoGP, whilst describing his own fall from a lowly twelfth as 'a joke'.

Marquez snatched victory after a last-lap duel with Petronas Yamaha rookie Fabio Quartararo, but was the only Honda rider to finish in the top 13.

Crutchlow's LCR team-mate Takaaki Nakagami tumbled from eleventh on lap 3, rejoining to finish last. Jorge Lorenzo took the flag in 14th place, 47-seconds behind team-mate Marquez.

"I was trying to ride to the finish in the fastest possible speed, which was very slow, but I had no warning in the crash. I had more warnings on the right-hand side and ended up crashing on the left," said a disappointed Crutchlow, who had qualified in 14th.

"I didn’t have a good test here. I didn’t ride particularly well in the test, I didn't ride particularly well this weekend. But even when I don’t ride well I should be in the top eight.

"We're so far off you can't imagine. I just didn’t have the feeling all weekend or at the test. We made no improvements. Some settings we tried, one bit was better, but then I had problems in another area.

"The sole problem with the bike all weekend was that I couldn’t turn… it makes it a long 27 laps I can tell you that! And I only managed 22 of them.

"It's hard to take because in these [low grip] conditions I should be good. Yes, I'm not riding amazingly, but I'm also not riding bad.

"I didn't have the feeling to be able to do it and to crash out of twelfth is just a joke."

Slippery conditions had been kind to Crutchlow at previous rounds this season - including the only Honda podiums by a rider other than Marquez at Qatar and Sachsenring - where he had been able to compensate for the bike's lack of turning by sliding the rear.

"You can't do that here. It's not that kind of circuit," Crutchlow explained. "Where I'm struggling is in the fast corners on deceleration and you can't open the throttle and turn when you are still decelerating with the brake on.

"So I struggled in every corner. This is the situation. I don’t feel good with the bike, I didn’t feel good in the test and I didn’t feel good here this weekend.

"Marc made a miracle today. Simple as that."

Marquez, the only non-Yamaha in the top five, stalked race leader Quartararo before passing the young Frenchman twice on the final lap.

But Crutchlow felt the physical toll of turning the bike was visible for all to see.

"[Marc] had a fast bike today in fifth and sixth gear, but I can tell you now he was working probably 80% more in every single corner and every single braking zone than the riders around him," Crutchlow said.

"Marc is a very fit guy. He's probably in his prime and if you see him physically after the race - also at Silverstone and some other races - he's a lot more tired than the other guys on the podium. You can see it in his face.

"Physically [the bike is] not good at the moment and I believe, yes, Marc's requests are probably similar to ours. But I also don’t think that he cares so much as the other riders would have to care, because he's still able to finish on the podium every week and win the race today.

"I've made podiums with [the bike] this year, at some tracks I feel okay and some race tracks I don’t. Today I didn’t feel okay.

"You lean the bike and stop the bike with the grip you have available. Today the tyres were the same for everybody but they work differently for different bikes. I just can't turn our bike, I can't change direction, stop our bike. But maybe it's me."

Crutchlow is now ninth in the world championship, 24 points from top satellite rider Quartararo but still the next best RCV rider after runaway title leader Marquez.

Like Marquez, Crutchlow was running the standard Honda chassis at Misano.

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