 Crosby crashed during practice for the British Grand Prix badly scraping the skin on the palms of his hands however, after sitting out Saturday practice sessions, he valiantly fought to a third place finish in the race.While Yamaha had put all their efforts into developing their new V4 engine, they had stopped development work on Crosby's square-four Yamaha allowing it to lose ground on the opposing teams from Suzuki and Honda.When Roberts was forced to withdraw from the championship due to injuries sustained at the British Grand Prix, his V4 Yamaha was given to Crosby for the San Marino Grand Prix however, after he suffered a high speed crash during practice he decided to race on his familiar square-four Yamaha, finishing in third place behind Freddie Spencer and Randy Mamola.