Cal Crutchlow produced a battling performance to claim a points finish in the Valencia Grand Prix on Sunday. After an unlucky break on the opening lap, the LCR Honda CASTROL rider was unable to force his way into the fight for the leading places at the notoriously tight Circuit Ricardo Tormo, but showed determination to finish as the leading Honda rider in 13th spot.
Having started from the fifth row of the grid, Crutchlow made a great start to close on the top 10, but was then forced out wide and lost his early momentum. He continued to push hard and fought his way back into the points positions, eventually finishing behind the Yamaha of Valentino Rossi.
Cal Crutchlow – 13th
“It was a tough race today. I got a fantastic start, but unfortunately got moved out into the first corner on to the outside of the track where it seems I hit some water that was off the track and I lost six positions, so I was disappointed to lose that and not be able to come through straightaway. I made some good passes and got up to not a bad group and not a bad battle, but unfortunately today I had a really bad feeling with the front tyre. It was not too hot, it was not over-pressured in any way, it was just the grip on the hard front tyre was not there today. I tried my best, it was a difficult weekend for us and the team and now we go to Portimao and we’ll see how we get on there.”
Race results:
| Pos. | Rider | Team | Time / Gap |
| 1 | Franco MORBIDELLI | Petronas Yamaha SRT | 41’22.478 |
| 2 | Jack MILLER | Pramac Racing | +0.093 |
| 3 | Pol ESPARGARO | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 3.006 |
| 4 | Alex RINS | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 3.697 |
| 5 | Brad BINDER | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 4.127 |
| 6 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | 7.272 |
| 7 | Joan MIR | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 8.703 |
| 8 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Ducati Team | 8.729 |
| 9 | Aleix ESPARGARO | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 15.512 |
| 10 | Maverick VIÑALES | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | 19.043 |
| 11 | Francesco BAGNAIA | Pramac Racing | 19.456 |
| 12 | Valentino ROSSI | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | 19.717 |
| 13 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | LCR Honda CASTROL | 23.802 |
| 14 | Stefan BRADL | Repsol Honda Team | 27.430 |
| 15 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati Team | 30.570 |
| 16 | Alex MARQUEZ | Repsol Honda Team | 30.619 |
| 17 | Tito RABAT | Esponsorama Racing | 42.365 |
| 18 | Lorenzo SAVADORI | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 46.472 |
| Not Classified: | |||
| Takaaki NAKAGAMI | LCR Honda IDEMITSU | 9 Laps | |
| Fabio QUARTARARO | Petronas Yamaha SRT | 19 Laps | |
| Johann ZARCO | Esponsorama Racing | 22 Laps |
Source: motogp.com, lcr.mc