Monster Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow chose not to enter the usual end-of-session soft-tyre laptime scrap during the closing minutes of today's second MotoGP free practiuce session but continued to work with the harder of Bridestone's options.
The Isle of Man resident still managed to set the fourth-fastest time on the tyre he will more than likely use in Sunday race and was only half a second down on Valentino Rossi's quickest lap, which he set on the softer option.
“We experimented a lot with the bike and found some very positive things that will help me for the rest of the weekend. This afternoon when the temperature really came hot I didn’t use a soft tyre and we can see from the timesheets how much of an advantage that was," said Crutchlow.
"I am sure if I had used the soft tyre I’d have been inside the top three but I preferred to do a long run with the hard tyre and it was positive. I need to improve a bit in the first sector but we have some changes planned for tomorrow that should help make me stronger and overall today I am really happy.
"I am convinced it is going to be a big fight on Sunday with the Spanish boys obviously wanting to put on a show here but I am looking forward to being part of the battle.”
