RAMSEY resident Cal Crutchlow produced a brilliant ride to secure his third successive fourth-place MotoGP finish on Sunday.
The 26-year-old, who has lived in the island for two years, came to within 2.4 seconds of race winner Casey Stoney and a split-second of a maiden podium in the weather-hit Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez.
Crutchlow was also fourth quickest in qualifying, just 0.007 of a second away from another front row start. The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team rider topped the time sheets for the opening 20 minutes but slipped outside of the top-three as the pace intensified.
A brilliant lap of 1min 41.646sec put Crutchlow back on pole before he crashed at Turn One. Luckily he was not seriously injured.
He was bullied out of the leading positions at the start of Sunday’s race, but then spent the bulk of the 27-lap event glued to the rear-wheel of early leader Dani Pedrosa on the factory Repsol Honda.
Producing the ride of the day, Crutchlow harried the multiple world champion but revealed later that the rear-wheel of his Yamaha was spinning ferociously out of corners, making it impossible for him to draw level with the Spaniard on the straights.
That said, Crutchlow twice set fastest laps and admitted that he and his team could take some credit from the result into future rounds. ‘I had a big crash yesterday and was in some discomfort. I was on my limit in the race.
‘On the day, three riders rode better than me.’
Factory Honda Casey Stoner, who later said it was the greatest race of his career, edged clear of series leader Jorge Lorenzo’s Yamaha on the final lap to win by virtually one clear second. Pedrosa, in turn, was 1.1s behind fellow countryman Lorenzo and four tenths of a second in front of Crutchlow.