PBM Aprilia's James Ellison was forced to pull in from a point-scoring position with only two laps left of the Jerez MotoGP race yesterday and then watched as CRT rival Randy De Puniet ran out of petrol a lap later.

Ellison was sitting pretty as third-placed CRT runner and in 14th place overall but his Aprilia cut out twice and then an oil pressure indicator lit up the dash so he had to pull in to pitlane with the chequered flag only three minutes away.

"I'm very happy with the improvements to the bike, we have gone a long way to sorting the chatter issues by trying a combination of the new front tyre and turning off the traction control but we lost side grip which we will sort by running TC at Estoril. We had a couple of problems during practice but I got a great start in the race and was feeling comfortable running with the leading CRT riders, we were even mixing it up with a few prototypes as well, but then the oil pressure suddenly dropped and I had to pit," said Ellison.

"I am gutted as we deserved our first points and I feel for the team. We have made good strides this weekend but still need more time on the bike to iron out the problems, especially with the electronics, but today has given us all encouragement and we can hopefully get a good result in Estoril."