Ducati’s Cal Crutchlow was pleasantly surprised that the neavy braking areas at Jerez did not cause his injured hand a problem in the two MotoGP free practice sessions today but he did struggle with changes of direction.
The British rider ended down in 17th on the combined timesheets and two seconds off the pace but he puts that down to sitting on his sofa in Italy last weekend instead of racing in Argentina like everyone else.
“I was happy, although the position was not good and not what we expected or what we expect of every weekend but honestly I was glad to ride and try the bike at least. My problem, I feel, is that everybody was going fast because they rode four days ago and I had a weekend off and I was disappointed not to race last week,” said Crutchlow, speaking at Jerez.
“It was good to get out there and try the hand. It felt ok, no painkillers, no taping and it was ok. I thoght braking would be painful, but wasn’t but changing direction at turn three and six to seven was really difficult.
“I also miss a lot the initial brake as I can brake full power but not immediately. I have to brake a little, then a lot so I miss the intial brake. We tried a few new things, a different setting but as the track was so hot it ended up feeling the same.”
