Ducati’s Cal Crutchlow had his best result in qualifying so far this year at the Italian circuit of Mugello, leaving the rider ‘pleasantly surprised’ with his good form.

In the fifteen minutes of Q2 Crutchlow lapped in 1’47.659, setting the sixth quickest time, meaning he will start the race from the second row. The rider was not confident with the bike in FP4, so was shocked to find he performed so well in the qualifying session. He made a few mistakes on his fastest lap, but with small changes to his Ducati he’s feeling much more ‘positive’ for the race ahead.

“It was a positive qualifying session, we needed to improve this weekend and we have. FP4 was not what we expected, we went in the wrong direction with the bike, and we had no time to change it back to how I wanted so I was pleasantly surprised with qualifying,” said Crutchlow.

“I think we did a good job and I’m not too far off the front row, but I made a small mistake as well in the lap and could have improved even more. Ducati have worked hard this weekend, we have a strong engine to take some advantage in some places of the track, now we need to calm it down a bit through the chicanes and work on settings for the race.”