Monster Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow is set to make some drastic setup changes to his YZR-M1 overnight as the front-end is not coping well with the bumps at Phillip Island and he also struggled to make it turn in during the opening two MotoGP free practice sessions.
On the combined timesheet, Crutchlow was only half-a-second slower than team-mate Colin Edwards in fourth but the former World Supersport Champion says he feels like he is about to crash every time he rolls over the bumpy tarmac.
"Today's result doesn't look too bad on the timesheets because although I am down in 12th, I am less than half-a-second away from Colin and he is fourth. But it was a very difficult day to be honest because I had a lot of grip issues and the bike was hard to turn as well. And if I run over any rough tarmac or any bumps I nearly crash, so I've got to sit down with my guys tonight and come up with a plan to try and make the bike better for tomorrow," said Crutchlow.
"We made an improvement to the bike after this morning and that was reflected in the times because I was quite a bit quicker this afternoon, but we've still got a long way to go to make feel more comfortable and confident. I think we need to be looking at making some pretty drastic changes to the bike for tomorrow, but I'm confident we'll find something and I'll be battling for a place in the top 10 on the grid.”
