Monster Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow was left cursing himself after a double crash in MotoGP qualifying at Misano today left him languishing in 13th place when he had shown enough pace to be significantly further up the grid.
Crutchlow was sitting in eighth place before he crashed at turn three, allowing other people to get in front and then, after going out on his second bike which had a very used front tyre in it, he fell again. The Coventry man put his hands up and admitted both crashes were his fault.
“The position on the timesheets looks like it was a bad session and it could definitely have ended a lot better without the two crashes. But this morning I was a second faster than yesterday and felt really comfortable on the bike after we made some overnight changes that improved the front," said Crutchlow.
"I think I was eighth on the timesheets when I had the first crash, so I know I could have been in the top 10 on the grid. The first crash was at Turn 3. I'd just gone out on my first soft rear and there wasn't enough heat in it, so it high-sided me and then turned into a low-side. It wasn't a big problem and we put a new soft rear tyre in the spare bike. But the only front I had left was 25-laps old.
"I was on for a really good lap and the front pushed because it had close to race distance on it and I crashed again. That's pretty annoying but they were both my mistakes and I hold my hands up for that. I'm still positive that I could have been much higher up on the grid and I am confident I can be inside the top 10 tomorrow. I need to apologise to my Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew for giving them a bit of work, but it makes me more determined to give them a decent result tomorrow.”
