Source: Supplied.

A heroic ride from Australian MotoGP rookie Jack Miller in wet conditions at Silverstone came to a crashing halt on Sunday, colliding with LCR Honda teammate Cal Crutchlow while battling for the podium on lap three.

Miller lit up the race on his RC213V-RS Open class entry by storming through the field from 16th on the grid into the top five, however a mistake ultimately took both he and Crutchlow out of the running.

The incident saw Miller imposed with the addition of one penalty point for ‘irresponsible riding causing danger to other competitors’, according to the FIM, following a hearing with race direction post-race.

“I’m happy with the weekend, but of course not happy with the result of the race,” Miller said. “I want to say a big sorry to Cal for taking him out, but we were both pushing hard. I didn’t actually mean to overtake him; I was just trying to hold Espargaro off on the brakes and accidentally went too deep and touched him.

“It was an accident, but all in all it was a good weekend as we found some settings with the bike we became more comfortable with and I’m looking forward to Misano. Misano is a good track for me, I like it a lot. It will be a new surface this year so I look forward to seeing what the grip level is like as last year was quite low, but it should be interesting.”

Crutchlow accepted Miller’s apology in a disappointing end for he and the team in his home grand prix. Although he was able to rejoin the race following the Miller clash, the switch to his dry bike caused a second, race-ending incident.

“Obviously I’m really disappointed,” Crutchlow said. “We could have done a great race today and I thought I had the pace to be with the winner. I felt really comfortable this morning in the rain and I felt really comfortable in the race, but these things happen.

“Jack is young, he was near to the front in a MotoGP race and made an ambitious move. He made a mistake, he apologised and I have accepted his apology. I’ve done it before and I’m sure I will do it again – this is racing, but obviously I was very disappointed.

“I came in and we changed the bike, but as soon as I went out of the pit lane I crashed immediately because it was a dry setting on that bike and there is a big, big difference. I was not really going to carry on too much as I was too far behind the leader at that point, but it was a good job by the LCR Honda team this weekend and I really appreciate all the fan support.”