Britain’s Cal Crutchlow struggled to seventh place in yesterday’s Buriram MotoGP after a riding style change wrecked his Michelin rear.

The LCR Honda man had made an alteration to the way he exited turns in order to try and save some grip for the final laps but only succeeded in wearing out the centre of the hoop.

I had fantastic grip at the start, but when I was behind them, all I was doing was picking the bike up to try to save the tyre,” said Crutchlow, speaking at the track.

“The rear tyre just completely dropped after 15 laps, I couldn’t battle, I couldn’t fight. By me trying to save the rear tyre, I actually destroyed it, because the centre of the tyre is so hard. The centre of the tyre’s been the problem all weekend.

“I should’ve kept more lean angle and opened the throttle more on the side, which is the complete opposite way to ride a 300bhp bike. So I destroyed the rear tyre for that reason. I rode the bike a little bit wrong, trying to pick it up and get it out of the corner.”