Cal Crutchlow bagged a brand new frame to use at the Silverstone MotoGP round but says he needs another race to be sure whether is has proven benefits over the older version.

t’s believed this was a chassis Dani Pedrosa used in the race in Barcelona to finish third, his last podium in the top class. The Spaniard discarded the frame after just one outing. To acquire more information, HRC asked Crutchlow to assess it over the weekend of the British GP.

“It wasn't very good to be honest. I should have used the other one,” joked Crutchlow when asked about the frame’s long-term suitability. It was, he said, too early to judge whether it was better or worse than the model he had used before.

“I don't know if it's better, honestly we're still in that moment of saying is it better, is it not? I went faster with the new hard tyre with the other one, and pace was exactly the same… I don’t know. Would I have done the same today on the other chassis? Probably. I would have just done it in a different area of the circuit.
 
“I think at the moment it's still a bit difficult to know, we need another race to test some things. But as I said earlier it's nothing that I've got and nobody else has the option to have. They had the option and at the moment they don’t use it. I am evaluating it for them to get miles on it as well, and I'm willing to do that because I want to improve the bike for me and for Honda. Maybe in the long run that will pay off and definitely next year.”