CAL Crutchlow has issued an apology to his Ducati team after crashing out the Japanese MotoGP.
The 28-year-old went into Sunday’s race at the Motegi circuit high in confidence having produced his best performance of the season in his last outing in Aragon where he celebrated finishing third.
Crutchlow started from row 3 after qualifying in eighth position and after lap one he had slipped back to 10th.
But a crash on turn three on only the second lap of the race brought his race to an early end.
“I’m really disappointed for Sunday result, and I’m sorry for the team first and foremost.” said Crutchlow.
“I made an error by slightly jumping the start, so then on the actual start I released the clutch too late and got a really bad start in the end.
“I tried to make up some time because I didn’t want the leaders to get away so much, and I pushed too hard and made a mistake on the wide line into turn 3 and crashed.
“I was actually quite pleased with my pace this weekend, we did a better job of it as a team, so I’m obviously very disappointed with the result. Hopefully we can make amends in Phillip Island.”
Crutchlow, 28, currently sits 12th in the World Championship standings with three more races to go starting with the Australian MotoGP this weekend.
