Monster Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow had to fight through the pain in his much-abused arm to take his first front-row start since Silverstone in August on a track he described as tricky due to the rain shower right at the start of qualifying.
The Isle of Man resident held top spot right at the end of the 15-minute dash but was just pushed out by Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi. He was just 0.023s behind The Doctor and ahead of factory stablemate Jorge Lorenzo.
“I am really happy to be back on the front row because it was not an easy session at all. It was hard with a dark visor to see where the track was wet and in some corners it was pretty tricky," said Crutchlow.
"It was a bit of a lottery with the damp sections and I think it came down to who was willing to take the most risks right at the end when the track was improving. Today’s result is a great reward for my Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew because they have done a brilliant job giving me a very competitive package this weekend.
The arm he battered in a big crash at Silverstone has started to give him pain again after being comfortable for the last two rounds. Crutchlow intends to have surgery on it as the injury is retaining a lot of fluid but that won't happen until the season is over.
"It has been tough for me physically because of the pain coming from my right arm. I first damaged it at Silverstone but the pain has been pretty bad this weekend and I'm a bit surprised because I felt nothing in Misano and Aragon," he said.
"The swelling is pretty big but I am really motivated for tomorrow’s race. It is going to be a very tough race in the heat and humidity but hopefully I can put up a good fight. It will be hard for the tyres as well because 20-laps is a long race and the tyres have been going off quite quickly.”
