CAL Crutchlow expressed his disappointment after failing to finish the Le Mans MotoGP on Sunday.
Despite showing form in both free practice and qualifying, the Coventry-born rider suffered from a dramatic change in conditions on race day.
The 29-year-old qualified just 0.051 seconds shy of the front row but struggled for front grip as the sun broke through in northern France which raised track temperatures by 15ºC.
Despite that Crutchlow was holding a strong position in seventh and biding his time for a late charge, which unfortunately never materialised after a mistake under braking on the 8th lap of 28.
“Obviously I’m very disappointed,” said Crutchlow. “It seems all the Hondas struggled for front grip today but this wasn’t actually the reason for the crash.
“My foot slipped off the rear brake pedal and as that happened I grabbed the front brake, which caused a big spike in the front braking and caused me to crash.
“I’m really sorry to the team for that because I felt that in the latter part of the race we were due to come stronger and fight in the group that was immediately in front of me.
“That was the limit of what we were capable of on Sunday. I was close to Marc (Marquez) when it happened but we were both a long way from the front guys because it seems they had a lot more front grip than us.
“We need to regroup now and go to Mugello, where hopefully we can have a better race.”
