Crutchlow says warning light thwarted Argentina victory bid

Crutchlow, who won two races for LCR last year, ran much of the Argentina race in second but would eventually go on to complete the podium, falling prey to a late-race overtake from Vinales' teammate Valentino Rossi.

The Briton, however, believes he could've been up there with Vinales in the victory battle if he hadn't been forced to back off.

"The race was actually quite easy," Crutchlow told BT Sport. "Honestly, I could’ve pushed for Maverick, I tried two or three times, but I had a warning light come on my dash every time I pushed, so I had to slow down.

"I could keep the pace, I just had to slow down, and Vale stayed at the same pace behind me.

"In the end, when he [Rossi] came past, I probably could’ve stayed a lot closer behind him, but the warning light was on so I just had to finish the race. In the end it was an easy race, not so much going on, but good fun."

"Not willing" to take early risks

Crutchlow's podium finish wound up a positive point in what was otherwise a dreadful race for Honda, as Marc Marquez crashed out of the lead at Turn 2 early on and fellow factory rider Dani Pedrosa followed suit in the same spot later.

The Briton says he was not willing to push his luck in Argentina, having crashed twice in the season-opening race in Qatar.

"When I saw those two had crashed with the same [hard] front tyre as me, I was a little concerned, but I knew I could manage the tyre to the end of the race, not really pushing," Crutchlow said.

"I let Marc go at the start of the race, because I changed the rear tyre on the grid and it took another lap to come in. I thought it was the perfect situation, he can go and then I can catch him, same as Australia.

"I was not willing to risk it at the start, I needed to finish after Qatar. I didn’t need to push in those first laps."

While he had described the race as "easy", Crutchlow said he was losing laptime during the grand prix due to his Honda bike shaking.

"The bike is really hard to ride, especially the last five laps," he said.

"I was cruising around but it seemed really difficult physically, I want to improve that in the next race because we could’ve been going a second a lap faster if the bike wasn’t shaking."