 Crivillé finished second in the championship with 245 points, 64 points behind the champion and teammate Mick Doohan and 77 points ahead of Luca Cadalora.After finishing as runner-up in 1996, some speculated that there was a real chance that Crivillé could win his first 500cc title in 1997.Crivillé started his season off by taking back-to-back second places, albeit losing out to teammate Mick Doohan once more.