Crutchlow: I couldn’t stop the bike

After struggling to get his LCR Honda up to speed at the start, it would be a problem while stopping the bike that brought Cal Crutchlow's Malaysian MotoGP to an early end.

The Englishman, who had qualified as the top Honda with fifth on the grid, got a great initial jump when the red lights went out, only to plummet down the order by the exit of Turn 1.

"I got the best start on the whole grid and when I shifted gears I had no power," Crutchlow said.

"Last week I got an absolute rocket start in Phillip Island and it seems the power today was the same. I got the best jump off the line you could have asked for, but as soon as I shifted to second it was just not going anywhere.

"I had five or six bikes go past me there, then I got pushed wide at Turn One and three more bikes went past me. So I was eleventh on the first lap and already in trouble.

"You need to start with these guys to be able to go with them."

Crutchlow's hopes of mounting a recovery were then hit by a lack of grip and he eventually fell from twelfth place, on lap 15 of 20.

"I felt good in FP4 yesterday, even though the lap time was not good, it was a really used tyre. It just seems that our setting was for a grippier track and I didn’t have any grip at all today.

"I couldn’t stop the bike, as you saw in the last corner. I was locking the rear and then pushing the front, so you lock the front."

The #35, who has struggled with the rear-wheel rising off the ground under braking this season, revealed that:

"We have to lean the bike a little bit to decelerate and I couldn't lean the bike to decelerate. As soon as I started to lean the bike, this [crash] is what happened. Yesterday I leaned the bike to decelerate a lot better than today and that just seems to be down to the grip conditions.

"I was in that group for eighth place, but eighth is not where I expected to finish today. I couldn’t stop the bike and I couldn't get out the corners. I expected to finish in the top five and, even not feeling great, I think with a better start maybe we could have been further up. I just got beat-up on the first lap and that was it.

"The last time I crashed the bike was in Misano, so today was actually a little bit of a shock to crash because I thought I was going to see the flag at least. We're disappointed but we have to take note that I've had a sixth, a fifth and a second in the last races and felt good in those races. We have to go to Valencia more positive than what our outcome was today."

16 points behind Jack Miller and 18 ahead of Franco Morbidelli means Crutchlow is probably set to finish ninth in the final world championship standings.

"I don’t care about the points. I care about race wins and podiums. I stopped looking at the points after I crashed in Texas!" he said. "We just have to now go and try and be fast in Valencia and look forward to what we can start to bring for 2020 hopefully."

Temporary team-mate Johann Zarco, riding the team's 2018 spec bike, fell from ninth place after a clash with Joan Mir.