Cal Crutchlow: Cameras should have been on us, 10 riders going completely mad! Full story 👉 MotoGP MalaysianGP
Starting the penultimate event of his unexpected six-race MotoGP comeback, Crutchlow recovered from a scare at Turn 2 to finish the opening lap in 14th.
“! We all lost at least 8 to 10 seconds riding like idiots! I lost four places in one lap! It was fun with all the scrapping, but we were just holding each other up essentially.“At one point. I thought ‘just f**k off and leave me alone!’ Let me ride around happy instead of getting blasted with ‘bullets’,” said Crutchlow, referring to the debris being fired from the back wheels of the bikes ahead.
“I feel that I'm competitive enough, but I couldn't be competitive at the front, week in, week out,” said the triple premier-class race winner. Team manager Wilco Zeelenberg said: “Cal did a great race. Also looking to the boys who finished behind us, it’s very impressive, what he is doing; coming out of retirement and finishing consistently inside the points. Chapeau to him.”
“Fabio did a great job [to get third] today. Did what he needed to do, which was stay in the hunt. All the pressure is on Bagnaia, not on Fabio, he just has to go and try and win in Valencia. That's all he can do.”While other riders take some well-earned time off ahead of the Valencia finale, after five races in six weeks, Crutchlow is taking part in a private test at Jerez to continue development of the 2023 Yamaha.