VALENTINO Rossi admitted he had gambled – and lost – at Donington Park's final British Motorcycle Grand Prix.

The Fiat Yamaha star crashed at two-thirds distance, throwing away a chance of claiming an eighth GP victory at the Derby circuit.

However, he remounted to carve his way back through the pack to finish fifth.

Rossi said: "I should have let Andrea Dovizioso pass me for a while but it was difficult to judge such strange conditions.

"Riding in the rain with slick tyres is always a risk and it was quite slippery. The turns on the left were all wet, which left that side of the tyre cold and that's why I crashed.

"Luckily, it was a slow fall, so my bike wasn't damaged much. In fact, my bike was brilliant, both before and after the crash."