LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow summed up his second day of MotoGP free practice as ‘a bit of a disaster’ after problems with engine braking and chatter, plus a crash, conspired to keep him out of qualifying two and at the wrong end of the timesheets.
The Isle of Man resident isn’t able to carry any of the corner speed required by Michelin’s tyres - a problem which has plagued him through pre-season testing - and looked to have caused the fall when the front of his satellite bike pushed and then washed out from under him.
“It was a bit of a disaster of a day really. I just don’t have feeling with the front of the bike and I can’t turn into the corner without problems with the engine brake, a bit similar to yesterday. I was positive that we would be able to fix it, but I’m still having a lot of vibration with both of the tyres for some reason. Braking early and trying to carry corner speed is impossible, which is what you need to be doing with the Michelins,” said Crutchlow.
“We have some sort of problem at the moment, but we have no idea what it is. We know the factory team changed something that we’re not able to change and it seems that they are going better. We went back to the settings we had at the test and the problems are still there. I’ve not got too much to say, other than as soon as I push it’s impossible to go fast.”
“We have to look tonight and try and figure it out, you don’t have time to do these things during the session. The problem now is we have to go through Q1… but we’ve been there before, so let’s see.”
