Britain’s Cal Crutchlow said that a stupid mistake on the brakes into turn 11 during yesterday’s MotoGP qualifying cost him a front-row start for today’s race as he was nudged back by both Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso.

The CWM LCR Honda rider outbraked himself into the sharp left-hander which leads on to the long back straight so wasn’t as fast as he could have been through the next sector.

“I was pissed off not to be on the front row because of my own stupid mistake but that’s racing. I wasn’t pulling the back door out of someone, I did it on my own like I always do, which is a good feeling,” said Crutchlow, speaking in Austin.

“I made a mistake into turn 11 and then I lost all the drive on to the straight, so I wrecked two sectors just outbraking myself and it cost me the front row. It didn’t cost me pole, I don’t think, but it would have been close I feel.

“The race is going to be difficult as we don’t understand the package enough to make the changes, we haven’t had enough time on the new chassis which way to go as if we do one thing, it changes another so we need to have a dry warm-up and work again.

“Our pace is not too bad, I did my fastest lap in free practice four with 17 laps on the tyre, so that is a good thing - some of the other guys had new tyres. The first eight laps we need to be there as we may gain some back at the end.”