Britain's Cal Crutchlow made no excuses for his disappointing finish at yesterday's Laguna Seca MotoGP round and said it was hard to swallow nearly winning at the Sachsenring last weekend and then slipping to seventh in California.
The Monster Yamaha man struggled to find a setup all weekend and contented himself with a win and some points instead of the crash he believes would have happened in previous years.
"Absolutely no excuses, I never found a good setting with the bike all weekend. In the race, I had to finish, it was one of those where in a lot of other years and situation I wouldn't ave done so. I got some points, I dropped to fifth in the championship. I twas my worst qualifying, worst race but I still finished 15 seconds behind the winner," said Crutchlow, speaking at Laguna.
"It was a difficult race for us, difficult race for Yamaha. Valentino made the better job, and also Jorge. It's hard to take that last week I nearly won the race and this week I finished seventh but we knew it was going to be tough. I tried everything with the bike and had the same feeling with every single setting.
"I know I need to improve in some areas, not just the bike but me. I don't think I could have done any more than I did, I tried my best and I got beaten."