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Crutchlow rejects Yamaha frame upgrade after test

Monster Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow won't be using the chassis upgrade at Assen that he was given to try in testing yesterday but believes he has found a solution to the braking problems he suffers at the start of races.

The Isle of Man, er, man struggles to get the bike stopped with a full fuel load but managed to alter his setup so be able to brake 15m later, and with a tailwind, than he could for the Catalunya race weekend.

"I tested the chassis that Valentino and Jorge aren't using, which is also the one Lorenzo won the race on at Qatar and raced in Jerez. Now he has gone back to the other chassis and I can confirm it is no better than mine, which is last year's," said Crutchlow, speaking at Catalunya.

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"I did a whole day on it and struggled in some areas. It seems more stable in braking but all the other points, it is not as good. I did one run on my existing chassis with a 25-lap old tyre and went just as fast, basically, and felt more comfortable."

Crutchlow did try the new chassis on a longer run so used more fuel but encountered problems that he doesn't have with the existing frame.

"I did a longer run on it, so the fuel was maybe 14 litres, and it became worse than my usual chassis. I had a lot more spinning on the rear tyre, the bike didn't want to enter the corner as well as my normal chassis does."

Importantly, though, the ex-footballer thinks he has found something to help him stay with the likes of Lorenzo for the first few laps and he will be able to brake later and deeper with a full fuel load - something he cannot do now.

"We were playing with the setup of the bike today for the start of the race so every time I left the pits it was with a full fuel tank, which makes it difficult for a good laptime of course but we weren't working on that.

"We might have found something for the start of the race. We want to be able to brake a bit deeper in the first laps and it seems we have been able to find that. I believe we have found something because we had a tailwind today and we were able to brake 15 metres later than we could on Sunday."

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