ꦕTech 3 Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow preferred to focus on the positives after he was denied a potential rostrum finish when his M1 ran out of fuel on the final lap at Motegi.

It was a crushing blow for the British MotoGP rider, who was l🐟ining up an attacking move on Alvaro Bautista when his satellite Yamaha spluttered to a halt.

The pair had wowed fans in Japan 🏅with a thrilling battle to set up a last-lap showdown, but it wasn't to be as cruel misfortune ended Crutchlow's race in disappointing fashion.

However, the 26-year-old chose to look on the ꦉbright side after a golden chance to seize his second podium of the campaign went begging.

"All I can do after the way the race finished is take the positives from this weekend and there are a lot," said Cr𝔍utchlow.

"This isn't a good track for me an♔d I was struggling on Friday, yet I managed to get on the front row of the grid again and for the whole race I was fighting for the podium.

"The improvements we made from Friday we𓄧re massive and I am proud of the job that my crew and myself did this weekend.

"But there is no denying that I am disappointed as well because I was confident I could hav🔯e passed Alvaro on the last lap," he added.

"It wouldn't have been easy because he was riding very well and it wꦇas a very enjoyable battle with him.

"I had a lot of fun and I'm sure he did too and it is just unfortunate that we couldn't take the fight r꧙ight t🔯o the very end."

Crutchlow's aim of✨ finishing fifth ౠin the championship standings has also suffered a significant setback after his unfortunate DNF in Japan.

"Even fourth wouldꦕ have been good for my hopes of 🀅finishing fifth in the championship but I lost a lot of points today.

"We knew fuel consumption was g𝔍oing to be ♛critical. I was very fast and for almost the whole race I was on my own with no slipstream, so I used more fuel," Crutchlow added.

"I've proven again though tꦺhat I can fight with the best in the world and 𝔍now I'm looking forward to Sepang.

"I had two goo𓄧d tests there earlier this year and I'm excited to go back and try to battle for ꦺthe top three again."