LCR's Cal Crutchlow feels he “should have went for the lead early on” in the MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix, but was “concerned” about his engine “power strategy”.
Crutchlow joined the lead group in the opening laps of the race, and even ran as high as second after making a move on Honda stablemate Marc Marquez at Turn 7 in the early stages.
The Briton was keen to usurp race leader Andrea Dovizioso, but soon found Marquez back underneath him and opted instead to let the pair fight it out, maintaining a small gap to Marquez in order to avoid a collision with the champion-elect.
However, in the latter stages Crutchlow quickly dropped off the pace of the top two, and had to fend off Suzuki's Alex Rins to hold onto second after Dovizioso's crash.
Crutchlow now admits he should have taken the lead earlier and allow Dovizioso and Marquez to battle over second.
“The race was a strange one. I felt good, I honestly felt good, the problem was I should have went for the lead early on,” Crutchlow, who now leads the independent riders' standings by 13 points, said.
“But I was a little bit concerned about our power strategy, about how I would press the buttons alone on the bike.
“So I decided to sit behind Dovi, I passed Marc and I thought I can pass Dovi, then them two can fight it out and they're ok.
“I was looking to pass Dovi, Marc passed me back and I thought leave them too it a little bit.
“I was still close to Marc, but I wanted to keep half a second simply because I didn't want to run long in one of those braking zones at Honda's home grand prix with Marc challenging for the title.
“I struggled a little bit for five laps with the rear grip, but when the pace went back up I felt good.”
Crutchlow expressed his unhappiness at Dovizioso's tactic of “yo-yoing the pace”, which allowed the group behind him to close in, but concedes there was “nothing wrong” with the Ducati rider's strategy.
“The problem was Dovi was yo-yoing the pace again. Now we know the strategy of the Ducati, which he's done in four or five race in a row now: he does two or three fast laps, then he slows the pace down, then he does two or three fast laps again and slow the pace down.
“But that was allowing Alex and the rest of the group to catch, and there's nothing you can do about it, it's so difficult to pass.
“But we had a strong bike today, I'm very, very pleased for my team and Honda. But I should have probably attacked Dovi earlier and let them fight it out for second place.
“Even when the Ducati does a slow lap, the way it accelerates off the corner is really strong, so it's really difficult to get a run to pass them.
“I don't know why they do it, I don't know if it's him. But that's their strategy, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it, but my concern was the guys coming back.”
