Monster Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow managed to net himself a second-row start for tomorrow's MotoGP round at Le Mans despite having a bike that is unstable and hard to ride.
The former World Supersport Champion parked his YZR-M1 in fifth at the end of today's qualifying but was knocked down to sixth in the last minute. Crutchlow also said he went faster on a very worn soft tyre than a fresh hard-compound Bridgestone.
“I knew I had the raw speed to come into MotoGP and be fast, but to get a top six on the grid in just my fourth race is a brilliant achievement. Thanks again to my guys in the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team because we've worked really well again and I wanted to do well with this being the Team's home race in France," he said.
"At one point in the session I was only 15th and I was starting to get a bit worried because we spent a lot of time on the hard tyre. I couldn't get it to work and I did a faster lap on a softer tyre that had done 30 laps. To be honest, the bike has been quite difficult to ride this weekend.
"We've had to change the wheelbase setting from the Estoril test but it still feels a little bit unstable. To qualify sixth on a circuit I've never seen before though is great, but my expectation will still be to finish in the top ten. And that's going to be difficult when you look at how close the times are. As always I'll be going all out tomorrow to get a good result.”
