It was far from a happy ending for LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow at the Motegi circuit in Japan on Sunday after he failed to finish the 23 lap rain soaked event.
The British rider suffered two falls in a difficult wet race that was eventually won by Andrea Dovizioso after starting from all the way down in 15th place.
Crutchlow was hampered by the spray from all the bikes in front of him in the early laps before crashing for the first time on lap five.
He managed to remount and head back out on his spare bike, even though he was well down the field, however, a miserable time in Japan was complete when he fell again and the Briton is now looking to move on and regroup in Australia this weekend โ the scene of one of his two premier class victories last year.
โObviously, it's a disappointing end to the Japanese Grand Prix. I was fighting at the start of the race, but I was really far back in the pack and there was so much spray from the other bikes I think all the riders found it very difficult to see,โ he said.
โThen unfortunately I crossed the river at turn seven, there was some rear brake pressure and I high-sided the bike off throttle. But I remounted and took the spare bike and then had a very strange crash as I was not pushing hard and was about to enter the pit in one more lap because I was not going to score any points.โ
โWe hit the stream of water in the back straight, but it was a really mysterious crash the second one. Now we have to take the positives to Phillip Island, which are that I won there last year, but there have been no real positives from the Japanese Grand Prix apart from visiting Japan itself.โ
