Cal Crutchlow produced one of his best performances of the 2011 MotoGP World Championship at Motorland Aragon on Sunday, and he says his ninth place ahead of Valentino Rossi was the ultimate learning experience.

Crutchlow was involved in the most exciting battle on track as the 25-year-old, Rossi and Hiroshi Aoyama were barely split by more than a second.

He passed Rossi and Aoyama on lap 18 and despite coming under intense pressure from the more experienced duo, he managed to keep them at bay to claim his best result since the Catalunya race in early June.

“I’m really pleased with how the race went today because I was back inside the top and having a really good and enjoyable fight with two of the best riders on the grid, who have had a lot of success in grand prix racing,” Crutchlow said.

“What pleases me the most is that I could make up for the lack of speed on the straight in the corners because the Yamaha handles brilliantly and my Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team gave me a really good bike today. But to hold off Valentino and Hiroshi at the end took a massive effort.

“I think if they’d started the final lap in front of me on the straight it would have been hard for me to slipstream. There are a lot of positives to take from this weekend because I’ve got back in the top 10 on a track I’d never seen before and beaten two guys with a lot more experience than me.

“I gained a lot of experience today riding with Valentino and that has given me a lot of confidence for the next few races.”

The seven valuable points collected today moved Crutchlow two places up the world championship rankings into 13th position and he moved back ahead of Karel Abraham in the coveted Rookie of the Year classification.