Cal Crutchlow had to settle for eighth position in the Grand Prix of Aragon after a difficult start scuppered his hopes of challenging at the front of the field. The LCR Honda CASTROL rider was on the pace throughout free practice and had qualified on the front row for Sunday’s race, but lost a host of positions after being crowded out at the first corner and battled back to secure a top-10 finish. Crutchlow initially looked to have got away well, but was forced off his line at the end of the home straight and found himself down in 12th by the start of lap two. The Briton showed consistent pace to make up positions throughout the race, though, passing Petrucci, Quartararo and Miller, but could not find a way past Andrea Dovizioso on the final lap as he ended in eighth.

Cal Crutchlow – 8th
“Obviously, this is not the result we expected today. On the warm-up lap, we had a problem in the back straight with the clutch slipping on the bike a lot. So when I came to the grid I wasn’t sure how much to push the clutch off the start line because if I’d have really pushed the clutch I’d have been in a lot more trouble in the race. I had a lot of clutch slipping in the first laps until about lap three and then it continued less until lap six. But at that point I was in 12th position and I had to battle back through. The best result I could do was eighth place which I’m pleased with after the difficult moments at the start. I think we did a good job, now we have to look forward to next week and take some positives from today.”

Race results:

Pos.	Rider	Team	Time / Gap
1	Alex RINS	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	41’54.391
2	Alex MARQUEZ	Repsol Honda Team	+0.263
3	Joan MIR	Team SUZUKI ECSTAR	2.644
4	Maverick VIÑALES	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	2.880
5	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	LCR Honda IDEMITSU	4.570
6	Franco MORBIDELLI	Petronas Yamaha SRT	4.756
7	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	Ducati Team	8.639
8	Cal CRUTCHLOW	LCR Honda CASTROL	8.913
9	Jack MILLER	Pramac Racing	9.390
10	Johann ZARCO	Esponsorama Racing	9.617
11	Brad BINDER	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	13.200
12	Pol ESPARGARO	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	13.689
13	Aleix ESPARGARO	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	14.598
14	Iker LECUONA	Red Bull KTM Tech 3	15.291
15	Danilo PETRUCCI	Ducati Team	15.941
16	Miguel OLIVEIRA	Red Bull KTM Tech 3	18.284
17	Stefan BRADL	Repsol Honda Team	20.136
18	Fabio QUARTARARO	Petronas Yamaha SRT	21.498
19	Bradley SMITH	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	25.300
20	Tito RABAT	Esponsorama Racing	25.558
	Not Classified:
	Francesco BAGNAIA	Pramac Racing	21 Laps

Source: lcr.mc, motogp.com