Britain, as with almost every country, has a relationship with MotoGP that ebbs and flows. At certain times, we’ve been at the top of the world, at others, there has been no rider involved in the premier class.

This year sees Cal Crutchlow as the solo permanent British participant in the blue riband series after Bradley Smith moved to a test role with Aprilia, Scott Redding was ejected and has found a place in British Superbikes, and WorldSBK champ Jonathan Rea wasn’t offered a package suitable enough to tempt him away from fighting for a fifth world title.

Crutchlow starts this year on the back foot, so to speak, as he is still recovering from a Phillip Island whopper which smashed his ankle to bits. The LCR Honda man missed the European tests at Valencia and Jerez but came back with pace at Sepang.

Qatar, where the season opens on Friday, was not so good for the former Coventry rider and he believes there is lots to be done if he is to be somewhere near competitive under the floodlights.

“I think we have a lot of work to do to be in a situation where we can battle at the first race. I think Marc’s in a little bit better shape than us, but he’s had two bikes to work with over these three days,” said Crutchlow, and a crash in the desert didn’t help.

“I felt quite good with the bike when I went out, I gave some good information and then I had a crash in the last corner. With one bike we needed to change something which took a long time. I got back out after, did a run, and then what we wanted to try required a 30 minute change. That’s just the way it was.

“I wasn’t in Jerez and I still don’t feel very good with the front of the bike at all. I’m far off what I was here last year, but I feel a lot more confident than the result shows. That’s for sure. I look forward to racing here.”

“I felt better in Malaysia honestly than here. But this is a place which emphasises a lot that we have problems, that we do. But we have to take the positives, that we’re here racing and we’re really struggling with the rear brake.”

Crutchlow isn’t yet back to full fitness but is a lot further down the road than some media reported before the Sepang test, which said he wasn’t yet able to walk. The only problem his ankle is causing is with the rear brake, he reckons.

“I thought I could use it like normal. I can use the pressure like normal and the range of movement is good, but I can’t release it. I can’t pick my foot up off it so in the end I have it on 100 percent and I don’t even know that I’m doing it.

“So the range of movement is not good with regards to that – it’s just I can’t get my foot off the brake. Let’s see in a few weeks.”

Is there much chance of a championship challenge from Crutchlow this year. Even he thinks it’s unlikely…

“I can’t say. I have no idea. Of course I want to win races and of course I want to be up there in the championship but at the moment it doesn’t look fantastic.

“But that’s at the moment. There are other people with better rhythm than us. When I came to this race last year I had very good pace. But I’m not worried, that’s for sure.”

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