Crutchlow believes he could have challenged for first MotoGP pole at Mugello

The Briton qualified sixth at Mugello, beating his Tech 3 Yamaha team-mate Andrea Dovizioso to the final row-two spot with his last lap.

But Crutchlow reckons a much better result had been in prospect had a mechanical problem on Friday and a mistake on an earlier qualifying run not wasted his tyres.

"It's a pain in my arse - I should've been on pole, or definitely on the front row," he told the official MotoGP website.

"I did my laptime with a 27-lap-old front tyre because we had a mechanical problem yesterday and we had to park the bike and we wasted a set of tyres with that.

"It meant for qualifying I only had one new front tyre, and I crashed on it straight away. I had to go back with a really old front tyre, and I couldn't push. I used the rear to the best of my ability but I couldn't push at all with the front. It was disappointing. But I'm happy enough to start from the second row."

Crutchlow added that his race potential depended on how well everyone got to grips with the hard tyre that will be used on Sunday.

"It's going to be a tough race, no doubt about it. The tyres are rolling around a lot, rear and front. The front tyre's our main issue at the minute," he said.

"But we'll try to do our best for tomorrow. Our pace is not so bad, it just depends what everyone else can do."