Pol Espargaro: At least it happened after the finish!

Pol Espargaro's British MotoGP came to a dramatic end when he was thrown from his Red Bull KTM after the chequered flag.

Having crossed the finish line in eleventh, the rear-wheel of Espargaro's RC16 then locked-up as he entered Copse corner, sending the Spaniard into the air.

"The rear-wheel locked up straight away, but honestly I'm happy because we crossed the line," he said.

While joking that after the finish is the best time for a technical problem, he admitted: "Maybe the right time would have been when the bike is straight! But we crossed the line, no injuries and almost finished in the top ten.

"It can happen, I mean we are discovering things with the bike and sometimes there will be problems."

Team Manager MotoGP Mike Leitner added: "Pol had a spill off the bike after the line with a problem we've never seen before, but we'll learn from that."

Espargaro rose to ninth in the early stages of the race, but struggled to keep pace once the rear grip reduced. At one stage he slipped to 15th, but accidents and technical failures ahead helped him regain positions.

The #44 took the chequered flag 30-seconds behind race winner Andrea Dovizioso.

"When the rear tyre dropped I couldn’t continue following the top guys, especially with full lean angle I couldn't open the throttle and follow the line," Espargaro explained. "With Dani [Pedrosa] I was comfortable the first laps, then some riders started to overtake me and my rhythm dropped much more than them.

"We struggled more than we expected in this heat. But with full grip at the beginning I did a 2m 3s and I was able to - maybe not follow Dani - but stay there. Then I started to struggle with the rear and couldn’t continue the good lap time.

"Anyway, I think we must be happy because it feels like the same conditions as Barcelona, about the grip, and today we finished 30-seconds from the top [instead of 49-seconds] and we could fight with the top guys when we had full grip."

Espargaro made clear that whatever caused his slow-down lap accident hadn't hindered him during the race.

"We had our problem [after the finish] but the engine was fantastic during the race."

Team-mate Bradley Smith finished 17th and last, 18-seconds behind Espargaro.