Much has been made of the situation with Cal Crutchlow's new brakes in the run up to this weekend's Catalan MotoGP round. The Coventry man has received the upgraded 2012 pads and calipers, and someone has paid the bill.

He hasn't got the new carbon discs to go with them but, as he says in his usual and forthright style, they aren't going to make the difference between him winning and losing a race. What they have given him is an increased safety margin as they are both 25 per cent larger and will work better, especially braking from a long straight. He also needs to change his riding position as braking in some of the spots is causing his right leg to not reach the peg.

"They're not going to make me win the race by ten seconds but I feel we have more of a margin for safety now, especially braking after a straight, the bike is stopping more, there is 25 per cent more caliper and pad. The feeling is not so different but we have also stopped the lever moving so much - it's more constant. Tomorrow we might go back to the old brakes just to compare," said Crutchlow, speaking to bikesportnews.com this evening.

"We need to make some setup changes for tomorrow including my riding position. My feet are not on the pegs because I have got such short legs, my outside foot is not touching the peg - it's like riding around with one leg. We need to do a few little things here and there, nothing major.

"We tried the hard and soft tyre. The hard is OK but it spins a lot and it moves around a lot more on corner entry - the soft will go race distance unless they suddenly ramp up the pace towards the end of the race but I doubt that.