Crutchlow eyes Yamaha factory ride
Cal Crutchlow is hoping to get promoted to Yamaha's factory team next season, replacing the underperforming Ben Spies.
Crutchlow currently races for the satellite Tech 3 Yamaha team and has put in some impressive results this season, no more so than his British MotoGP achievement.
Starting at the very back of the grid having missed qualifying with a broken ankle, the Brit stormed through to the field to finish P6.
Now looking ahead to the future, Crutchlow says he's hoping to beat teammate Andrea Dovizioso to Spies' Yamaha ride should the factory team opt to drop the American.
"I think I've got a good shout at it but it's down to the Yamaha bosses," he said during a live webchat on the Bennetts Bike Insurance Facebook page
"At the minute we've proved what we can do, but Andrea has been in a factory team for three years already and has come back to a satellite team and is obviously one of the best riders around.
"He's already been in a factory team so maybe that will be in my favour.
"My priority is to stay with Yamaha because they've been very loyal to me over the past four years and I hope to repay them and hopefully we can do a good job with them.
"I'll wait to see what they want to do first and foremost but if not, we'll look at the other options on the table."