Ducati’s Cal Crutchlow says he was pleased to finish a MotoGP race for the first time in a month and says he wasn’t pushing as hard as he could as he just wanted to make it to the chequered flag.

The Isle of Man resident started the race from the second row and had decent pace in the opening wet laps despite saying he had no rear grip but as the track dried and he switched to slicks, his old problems returned. Crutchlow managed to end the race in ninth place.

“We needed to finish the race no matter what happened. We beat some of the guys that at the start of the weekend I didn’t think we could beat and some others were stronger than I thought. We didn’t have the pace in the wet or dry but I got involved a little bit in some battles,” said Crutchlow, speaking at the track.

“I had a strange feeling with the wet tyre at the start so couldn’t go with Andrea or Marc, which I felt I could have. We had to real idea with the setting of the bike and then we changed to the dry and the feeling was not so bad but we were understeering way too much and we finished where we finished.

“I had good confidence with the front but no rear grip. I think the rear was quite high for the rain but we didn’t have a base setting to go off. We need to be more competitive in the dry than the wet.

“I came in at the same time as the other guys but on the first lap out, I lost five seconds to Andrea as I came out with Iannone and he was riding really slowly until we got up to speed. As soon as the tyre dropped, I couldn’t ride how I wanted to ride. I had to make sure I finished the race.”