Raul Fernandez was “willing to take the gamble” on tyre life in his British MotoGP win, says Cal Crutchlow.

Tyre consumption was a major factor at the British MotoGP, most evidently in the Sprint when several Ducati riders dropped back in the closing stages as their rear grip faded.

The Aprilia riders, by comparison, were much better at the end of the Sprint and so went into Sunday’s race as the favourites.

It was Fernandez, though, who took the most advantage of the RS-GP’s potential, largely thanks to some excellent early pace that gave him a margin of several seconds. His gap over the chasing pack dropped a bit towards the end, but he still won by over two seconds.

For Cal Crutchlow, this is proof that Fernandez was more willing than anyone else to take the risk at the start of running into grip issues at the end.

“What you have to realise is [that happens when] someone is willing to take the gamble,” Crutchlow .

“Somebody is willing to push, and the others probably weren't willing to push.

“Raul [Fernandez] had more balls in those first five laps than everyone else to say ‘I’m okay with the rear tyre [wear], I'm going’; where the others may have thought, ‘Okay, he's going to come back to us in ten laps’, and he didn't.”

Fernandez was one of three Aprilia riders on the podium. When he crashed in Saturday’s Sprint, an Aprilia podium lockout was still secured because Ai Ogura finished second.

For Crutchlow, it’s clear the RS-GP had an advantage in terms of tyre consumption at Silverstone.

“The Aprilias were the only ones without any problem with the tyre [wear], let's say, over the whole weekend,” he said.

“Everyone else was trying to manage [the tyre].

“Maybe [Aprilia] just weren't generating the same heat [in the rear tyre] as the rest of the manufacturers and riders for some reason.”