Britain’s Cal Crutchlow crashed out of yesterday’s Aragon MotoGP round after a late move on Johann Zarco but had been having problems with his front-brake setup all race.

The LCR Honda man’s discs and pads were overheating as he spent much of the race in slipstream and lost vital cooling air - and the Isle of Man residen’t poorly finger meant he struggled to adjust the lever…

“I didn’t have a great feeling with my front brake lever, simply because I couldn’t adjust it with my finger. The front brake temperature was really hot at the end of the back straight because I was tucked the slipstream, then when I got to turn one the lever was really far out and I couldn’t adjust it because the front straight isn’t long enough and I couldn’t take my hand off the handlebar,” said Crutchlow.

“I made a mistake under braking because the lever was far away and as soon as I grabbed the brake I locked the front and ran wide, which was unfortunate. Then I got back on the track and recovered well, and I thought I might be able to come back across to the group. When I was riding alone I felt better.

“Then I made a mistake when I passed Johann into turn 14. I had to take evasive action because I had to pass him quite late – I hadn’t actually planned to make the move – then I lost the front. It was always the risk with the hard front tyre we chose.”