Cal Crutchlow says MotoGP riders ‘need to slow down’ after completing his second of three weekends aboard the Petronas Yamaha in last place.

Despite running at the back of the field for the majority of the past two races, the Brit is pleased with the work undertaken during the two Spielberg visits, admitting “my job is to test. Even though I’m racing, it’s to test, we can turn the bike upside down if they want.”

Reflecting on the AustrianGP, Crutchlow explained he was satisfied with both his pace and performance during the 28-lap return trip, overcoming multiple problems - not least the heavy rain in the closing stages - and getting closer to being match-fit after almost half a year off any form of motorcycle.

“I felt good. I got quite a good start. I was in this small group but then Valentino passed me and Petrucci was ahead of me so I stayed with Petrucci for a while and I felt quite comfortable with the pace,” Crutchlow said after the race.

“The track condition was not fantastic, as you can see from the lap-times from last week to this week, just because it was hotter but overall I think we made a step in the right direction.”

“I was not going slow. I was actually going sometimes faster than what I was going with the Honda - I finished fourth here in 2018, and my pace over this weekend was probably faster than that, but I was last. That’s the reality of this sport in the moment. I’ve said over the weekend is not a problem of my speed, is a problem that they’re going too fast, so they need to slow down!” the Brit stated before continuing his explanation.

“I had a really bad qualifying session but I qualified half a tenth slower than what I qualified last year with full time racing and six years on the Honda. I don’t think it’s that bad, it just looked bad on paper, so at least we got some good information.”

An electronics issue in the opening laps of the Austrian race left Crutchlow well adrift of the rest of the pack, with the solo rider unsure of the events unfolding ahead as the rain began to fall.

“I made a mistake and ran wide in one corner, lost a little bit to Danilo, but then I had a problem with the electronics on the bike. I was trying to figure it out, because out of the last corner the bike kept not accelerating, like dying - like the power was dying on the bike when I was opening the throttle - and it was because I changed the map, but it seemed that something was wrong with the map so I changed the map again and the same thing was happening. I had to go back to the first map but it took me three or four laps to understand it and to also understand if it was happening in another part of the track. By this time the race was ahead of me but I was quite comfortable in my pace, to go around at that pace and finish the race.

“Then it started to rain and the problem was that I was last and I was last by a good way because I kept slowing down for this problem with the electronics. I couldn’t see anybody, so I didn’t know if everybody had pitted, I had no idea what was going on, but because I was at the back, I was always the last to get the rain, so it was worse than when they got the rain. Every time I came round it was a little bit wetter and a little bit wetter, then a big downpour and I didn’t know whether to come in or not. Finally I looked on the big screen and saw everybody was in the pits, or a lot of guys are in the pit, so I pitted.

“I went back out and the track was like complete ice - just because the ground was so hot, that it was making like a shine on the surface, the track was actually not wet enough. I didn’t have a bad pace with the wet tyres, even though I did two laps but a tricky race, a really tricky race. Glad to see the finish!

“I think we would have made a good improvement with regards to the pace and the finishing distance to the winner, if it was a full dry race and I had no problems. But overall we had two good weekends, fun. Nice to be back on the bike and the team worked well over this time. It was never going to be easy jumping in after five months off the bike, it was never going to be easy coming to this circuit and it’s never going to be easy on me to understand many, many things but I think we did a good job of that actually.

“We gave them some good information. I sat down with [Takahiro] Sumi this morning for nearly 40-minutes discussing things - discussing the ‘19 bike, the 2021 bike and also next year’s bike so it gave us all a good opportunity. It gave Petronas SRT team a rider on the grid and I didn’t expect anything more from the weekend than what I got really, so it was okay. We’ll go to Silverstone with better hopes of improving my feeling, improving whatever we can improve, but overall I’m looking forward to Silverstone.”