Ducati’s Cal Crutchlow was forced to go into MotoGP qualifying at Indianapolis on a used front Bridgestone after he ran out of the medium compound and team leader Andrea Dovizioso deemed the hard compund not worth trying after completing a single lap.

Crutchlow managed to find a 1’32.941 to take him into qualifying two behind Scott Redding and then upped his game to a 1'32.794 to seal 12th place on the grid but Dovizioso was almost a second faster with Crutchlow saying the same old problems of lean angle and understeer were rearing their ugly heads.

“Our problem in qualifying was we didn’t have enough front tyres so I had to go out on a used one and didn’t have the confidence to push as hard as what I wanted or as hard as we should have done,” said Crutchlow, speaking at the track.

“We didn’t try the hard front. Andrea did but came in after one lap and said there was no point so that was the reason. You follow what the guy in the garage next to you says, and he said it was no good so I didn’t bother trying. For qualifying it would have been a risk to just got out and try and do a good laptime on a hard tyre.

“I want to go out and do my best and if that means finishing last then it means finishing last, so long as I have given it my all. I feel I am riding at the limit of my package and to my potential. The bike is capable of going faster.

“The gap is the same as it has been all year. It’s the same old story, we’re four degrees less lean angle and not able to turn the bike. We have more risk than the other guys. It’s no different to any other race weekend and we’re not going to change it overnight.”