Monster Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow celebrated his second MotoGP podium in a row today at Mugello, sharing the rostrum with Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa but says he got held up in the first corner by Andrea Dovizioso.

The Isle of Man resident says that his former team-mate went 'mental' as the lights went out and shot across the bows of Crutchlow's YZR-M1, causing him to shut off and play follow the leader into San Donato, which was the opposite of his race plan.

"Where we lost it was Dovizioso was mental off the start, the same as Qatar. I got probably my best start of the year, he came direvtly across and nearly hit me so I had to shut off straightaway and then he nearly took me off again, so I sat behind him when the plan had been to pass him in the first corner and go after the other two," said Crtuchlow, speaking at Mugello.

"I was pleased to be able to get past him early enough in the race and keep pulling away from the guys behind and to put 12 seconds into them I'm really pleased.

"In the end when the fuel load came down and we were catching the two Hondas, I could stay at that pace and not take any risks. With about eight laps to go I could see I was catching them and started to push. I thought, 'What the hell I've got to go and get them,'.

"I was confident I would have got them before the end anyway. Because Marc crashed, that made it easier for Dani to hold his second place. He upped his pace, I backed off a little but I am happy with that. I never want to be gifted a podium of course but we bounced back from yesterday well. I struggled here last year, to be honest, but this year there was a big improvement."