Ramsey resident Cal Crutchlow claimed a top-five finish in the Czech Republic round of the MotoGP Championship at the Brno Circuit on Sunday.

Crutchlow famously won at the same venue two years ago when he became the first British rider to win a premier class race in 35 years since Barry Sheene did so at the 1981 Swedish Grand Prix.

The 32-year-old lined up in the middle of the second row of the grid for the weekend’s 21-lap race at Brno and he got off to a blistering start which could have seen him up to third at the first corner, but he had to brake heavily as he closed in on Marc Marquez and dropped back to fifth.

Part way through the opening lap Marquez went wide at turn 16 and almost collected Crutchlow, allowing Danilo Petrucci and Johann Zarco to nip past. Crutchlow regrouped and re-took Zarco before a few laps later he passed Petrucci. He then had to get past former world champion Jorge Lorenzo who was holding the pack up as he tried to conserve his tyres for the end of the race.

With about 14 laps left Crutchlow made a move on Lorenzo and slipped up the inside to take fourth position - Lorenzo was seen to shake his head, but it was a clean move from Crutchlow.

The Ramsey man then went on the hunt for Valentino Rossi, the only rider on a medium rear tyre, who had been leading the race but had dropped back to third.

Cal managed to slip past Rossi at turn 12 to move into podium contention and, with Andrea Dovizioso and Marquez in front, Crutchlow must have thought he could repeat his win of 2016.

The LCR Honda team had cut grooves in Crutchlow’s front mudguard to try and stop his front tyre from overheating and this seemed to work as he tried to get past the works Honda of Marquez.

With four laps to go the leaders pulled the pin and started to pull away, Lorenzo regaining third place from Crutchlow and then second from Marquez.

It looked like Crutchlow would have to settle for fourth but he was mugged on the last corner by Rossi who pipped him on the line, meaning Crutchlow crossed the finish line in fifth place.

The race was won by Dovizioso on the Ducati from his team-mate Lorenzo, with Marquez claiming the last spot on the podium.

Crutchlow remains eighth in the World Championship and, following Sunday’s finish as the first independent rider home, is third in the Independent Championship, pulling back points on leader Zarco and Petrucci in second.

Crutchlow’s next race is this Sunday at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

Onchan resident Sam Lowes produced one of his best performances of the season when finishing ninth in Sunday’s Moto 2 race.

The KTM-mounted rider’s pace during the second half of the race was at times quicker than the leaders, but a disappointing qualifying position of 22nd put pay to any hope of a podium finish.

Peter Callister