Cal Crutchlow has put on a masterful display to win the Czech Grand Prix – sealing Britain’s first MotoGP win in 35 years.
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Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) and Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) completed the podium in a chaotic race, with the 9-time champion making a small gain on title rival Marquez as the two crossed the line in P2 and P3 respectively.
When I saw that there was less than 10 laps to go and the track was still wet, I started to manage my tyre wear.
The result leaves Marquez at the top of the overall standings on 197 points, 53 ahead of Rossi with Jorge Lorenzo dropping to third overall, on 138 points, after finishing 17th at Brno.
“Today, we didn’t do the best strategy or the best tyre choice but OK, it was completely my decision because I honestly expected a flag to flag race”, Marquez said. “For the moment the feeling with the “old” chassis is a bit better and I think that we’ll focus on this for the race”.
“The revs were completely destroyed so they had to work really hard to build me a bike for today and it’s really nice to repay them”. “I don’t know why if you choose one harder option you don’t choose the other”, Crutchlow says.
“Last year Jorge was much faster than me and I’m curious to see if this year I will do better”. His victory also secured the position of First Independent Team Rider and comes hot-on-the-heels of him becoming a father for the first time just three-weeks ago.
When Rossi’s remarks were relayed to Lorenzo, he said: “I want to be champion”. With that in mind, Marc and Dani with their teams opted for soft rain tyres, front and rear, a choice that proved less than ideal as the track never dried off enough to recommend a bike swap. I knew that after three or four laps I would be competitive, but it was quite hard to manage the tyres at the start of the race, because I needed to get the heat in them. The championship leader saved the crash just before the entry to pitlane, heading back to the garage in the aftermath and then preparing another assault – the one that saw him drop his previous laptime dramatically to go fastest on Friday.
Crutchlow’s drought-breaking victory came on the day that Scottish rider John McPhee won his maiden grand prix in Moto3, and Englishman Sam Lowes finished third in Moto2.
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Crutchlow admitted he had a scare four laps from home at Turn 10, and was wary of the threat from Valentino Rossi, who caught the lead pack while Crutchlow was working to pass Ducati’s Andrea Iannone.
