Ramsey resident, Cal Crutchlow, has regained the lead in MotoGP’s independent championship after finishing seventh in the PTT Thailand Grand Prix on Sunday.

It was a weekend of two halves for the LCR Honda rider at the Chang International Circuit.

After a good qualifying session, Crutchlow started the race from the middle of the second row and as the lights went out he blasted away from the grid.

He reached the first corner in third place, losing one place before the end of the lap to the factory Ducati of former team-mate Andrea Dovizioso.

With the leaders managing their tyre wear, the pack started to bunch up and with only 3.5 seconds covering the top 10 it was never going to be an easy race.

After 16 laps Crutchlow started to lose ground on the leaders and he was passed by Movistar Yamaha’s Maverick Viñales, Dani Pedrosa on the Repsol Honda and Alex Rins on the factory Suzuki.

Pedrosa crashed out at Turn Five, gifting a place back to the Isle of Man-domiciled rider, but, as Cal explained after the race, the quality of his rear tyre had started to drop off badly by lap 15, affecting the pressure in his front tyre.

Despite this, he managed to bring his Honda home safely in seventh after losing a place to one his rivals in the Independent Championship, Johann Zarco.

The race was won by Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez who passed Dovizioso on the last corner, with Viñales finishing third.

Crutchlow lies sixth in the MotoGP World Championship, but has retaken the lead in the Independent Championship where he now leads on 128 points, with Danillo Petrucci on 126 points and Zarco on 123.

The MotoGP circus now move on to Motegi in Japan, the home circuit for Honda, for the Motul Grand Prix of Japan on October 21.

Peter Callister