Britain’s Cal Crutchlow only got eight laps on his new chassis on day one of MotoGP free practice in Austin after rain wiped out the opening session and says he needs more time to evaluate it further despite coming second on the combined timesheet.

The CWM LCR Honda man was in a scrap for top spot with Marc Marquez and says that although he was fast in the dry, his wet pace needs work so the team are working on electronic strategies.

“I was way too slow this morning in the rain, and I was second fastest in the dry this afternoon. We were taking our time to build up confidence there, but overall I feel quite happy, we’re working with the team to improve the electronics strategies at the moment, because I have a few problems,” said Crutchlow, speaking at Austin.

“I had an electronics problem this morning, and then this afternoon it seemed a lot better, but it’s the first session in the dry, so we need to understand a lot more our new bike, because we have a new chassis this weekend. We need to understand it over the race weekend and hopefully we can improve on what we have done so far.

“That’s the difficult thing, and obviously only having eight laps in the dry so far, I can’t tell you whether it’s better and what area it’s better in. I believe of course it’s better, because the factory wouldn’t be riding it if it wasn’t better, so I think ove the race weekend we’ll be able to adjust more to riding that bike and the style of the new chassis and understand it a lot more.

“There’s always room for improvement and we need to understand it. Because the worst thing for me is I don’t have the bike to back-to-back, so it’s really difficult to say where it’s better. I believe sure it’s better, because the factory guys are using it, and I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made, and the speed was not so bad. But I need to understand it more.

“I need to ride a race distance on it, I need to see. And obviously in the rain, I’d only done six laps in Sepang on the other bike, so I couldn’t really compare. It’s a different track, but yes, my feeling’s not too bad. We need to calm the bike down a little bit, because I have a bit too much power in some areas, and a little too much wheelie, but this is part of a first day of riding around a track you have to learn where we need to improve and where we need to improve the setting.”