Britain's Cal Crutchlow has identified Honda's seamless-shift gearbox is giving Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa a big advantage at Phillip Islandm, saying they don't have to back off to change gear when the rear tyre is spinning.
The Isle of Man resident reckons he and Yamaha stablemate Jorge Lorenzo are losing time at the tight Honda corner because they have to use the clutch to change down and feather the throttle on the exit whereas the works Repsol men can nail the power on whether the rear is misbehaving or not.
"Our bike's no good round here. If you see, Lorenzo's losing half a second in one sector to Casey and Dani over the last two days. He stepped it up in qualifying but we can't change down as fast as them, so at the hairpin (Honda corner) you have to go back four gears we have to use the clutch, with their seamless shift they don't," said Crutchlow, speaking after qualifying.
"Coming out, we can't change gear with any spin so if our bike is spinning, we have to keep delaying and rolling the throttle. It's like riding a 600 or a Superbike as that's what you have to do. It's difficult and that's where we are losing the time."
