Monster Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow knew he had jumped the start of today's Motegi MotoGP race after he let the clutch of his YZR-M1 out as soon as he saw Marco Simoncelli move and the Italian has said the same about watching Andrea Dovizioso.

Crutchlow joined the two Italians in a ride-through penalty on lap five, just after he had run off track trying not to crash into the back of LCR Honda's Toni Elias at turn three. The Coventry man came out of pitlane last but recovered to 11th and scored some points.

"Where do you start after a race like that? I knew I'd jumped the start because directly in front of me was Simoncelli and I just let the clutch out when I saw him move. After that I just wanted to push to pick up as many places as I could before I needed to come in for the pitlane ride through," said Crutchlow.

"I was pushing to pass Elias but he braked really sharply at Turn 3 and I nearly ran into the back of him. That put me in the gravel, so if you take off the time I lost in that incident and the time I lost with the penalty, I'm sure I could have been in the top seven.

"After all the drama I just wanted to finish and get as many points as I could for Yamaha and for Tech 3 in such an important race. This is the fourth race in succession now that I've finished and I'm gaining a lot of experience.

"I haven't felt my best physically this weekend and I didn't know the track either, so to bag a few more points is a positive outcome and now I'm really excited about the last three races. I know Phillip Island, Sepang and Valencia, so hopefully I can have a really strong finish to the season.”