A crash in qualifying left Cal Crutchlow in 16th position on the grid for the final MotoGP of the season at Valencia, Spain on Sunday.

With a mountain to climb, he had made up a couple of places on lap one. On lap six the LCR Honda rider became embroiled in a contest between fellow Brit and KTM factory rider Bradley Smith.

Crutchlow later said he had the pace to get much higher, but the eight laps it took to pass Smith left him too big a gap to catch many more riders in the remaining 15 laps.

Ultimately he made his way up to 10th by lap 22 and, with the Ducatis of Jorge Lorenzo and title contender Andrea Dovizioso both retiring on lap 25, the Ramsey resident moved up to eighth.

Although he caught close friend Jack Miller on the Marc VDS Honda, getting past him in the final few laps proved impossible.

In the post-race press-conference he admitted that the fall in qualifying was his own fault and but for the high start position he could have had a much better race. Of his fall in qualifying, he said that he went into the corner banked one degree more than the previous lap and lost the front end.

Onchan resident Sam Lowes finished off his debut year in MotoGP when he dropped out with eight laps to go. He will be back to try and win the Moto 2 Championship in 2018.

The eventual winner of the race was Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) from Johann Zarco (Tech 3 Yamaha) and newly-crowned world champion Marc Marquez on the second factory Honda in third.

Crutchlow is back on the track today for the first test of 2018.