Britain's Cal Crutchlow missed a very possible MotoGP podium at Assen after his front tyre overheated again.

The LCR Honda man, who was in the eight-rider battle for the win, was right in the mix as the laps counted down but could do nothing as winner Marc Marquez made a break with three laps left and an error at Stekkenwal meant the Briton had to settle for a points haul.

“I needed to be at the front, where Marc [Marquez] was, or second. It was an epic battle etc etc, but to be in it on a Honda is a disaster, because our bike doesn’t work when we’re in groups," said Crutchlow, speaking at the track.

"You’ve seen the pace of Marc and he was doing 1'34s with his eyes closed. He’s been doing them alone all weekend, but he nearly got beat. If he hadn’t got to the front, he would have got beat.

“The Honda shakes. Our front tyre overheats too much. And I think you’ve seen today, we’re getting beat by Ducatis on power significantly. Don’t get me wrong, my team did a good job and they prepared a bike that was good enough for the podium. But I never made it happen.

“I made one mistake at turn eight with three laps to go. I got held up with Lorenzo, I got held up with Zarco. At the start of the race I was not willing to push. With that medium front tyre, it was a big risk for us.

“If everyone else is using it, it’s a risk for the Hondas. We decided to run it because the other one was even more of a risk on the left hand side. At the start of the race I got passed quite a lot because I was not prepared to push and go down, because of the extra rear grip that we had, with the soft.”