Monster Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow finished his eye-popping ride from dead last to sixth in yesterday's British MotoGP round at Silverstone with mixed emotions has he says he knew that with a decent grid slot, he was podium material.

The Coventry man ended the 20-lapper only 15s behind leader Jorge Lorenzo and 11s slower third-place man Dani Pedrosa while lapping as fast as the top men when it came to the final circuits of the Northamptonshire track.

"I've got mixed emotions because I finished sixth and moved up to fourth in the championship with what I feel was a strong ride but don't get me wrong, I am fed up I wasn't on the front row and wasn't able to challenge Lorenzo for a win," said Crutchlow, speaking to bikesportnews.com.

"In the race, every single lap was a second quicker than I did in warm-up and 2.3s faster than I did on Friday in free practice - may be I should break it every week! It was a stupid mistake, I did it last year and I did it again this year. Three riders crashed on the same lap and we were the only riders to re-heat the tyre from the night before.

“It was a very tough race but I just had to try and ignore the pain and let the adrenalin and support of the British crowd get me through. When I got by Bradl I could see Nicky was a long way clear, but I just kept on pushing to see what happened.

“I'm really happy with my lap times because I was as quick as the guys on the podium, even with a broken ankle. So a little part of me can't help but think without the crash yesterday that I could have been on the podium in the British Grand Prix."