Monster Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow suffered from a massive lack of rear grip in yesterday's Estoril MotoGP race which, added to the existing braking woes with which he already has to contend, meant a fifth-placed finish behind team-mate Andrea Dovizioso.

Although the Isle of Man resident says he was happy to finish the race and bag some more points, it's clear he is frustrated not so much the Italian crossed the line in front of him but the fact the gap to the podium was 13s and last weekend is was two.

"I finished fifth, I'm happy, last year I'd have taken that hands down. Am I upset I didn't beat Dovi? No, he was the better rider on the day, maybe he had a better setup. There were three guys on the podium that were a long way ahead who are fighting for the championship and we always knew that. To be close last week and not so close this week, I am a bit miffed," said Crutchlow, speaking to bikesportnews.com.

"We were having some problems, I couldn't stop the bike, change direction, it was spinning a lot and I don't know why. All weekend the bike has been a little bit unstable, heavy to change direction, tyre wear has not been so good. The track's condition and grip has not been so good but we seemed to struggle more than the others. I was riding the bike hard to stay in touch but I had no grip and it was unbelievable how much Dovi had compared to me.

"I could have pushed, crashed and not had any points. We were still ahead of four factory bikes and still in the second group battle but with the setup we had, that's all I could do. If the setup had been right like it was in Jerez, then we could have been been a lot closer to the front."