Monster Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow believes he is faster in some areas of Silverstone on a standard YZF-R1 than he was in MotoGP free practice today as he struggled to eighth and fifth in the wet and dry sessions in what he described as a tough day.

The Coventry rider couldn't get to grips with myriad problems on his MotoGP steed, the worst of which was wheelie control with the gusty wind at the airfield circuit but he says he will recoup tonight and come out stronger in the morning.

"Tough day. I feel bad, I've got a cold, a cough, it's one of those things but tomorrow's another day. In all honesty, we struggled and Ben was the only Yamaha not to struggle so we need to assess it and come out with a better plan tomorrow. The wind seemed to affect us the most. Why I don't know. I could go round here faster on a road bike than I can on a MotoGP bike and I seriously believe that," said Crutchlow, speaking at Silverstone this afternoon.

"In some corners two weeks ago, on a standard R1, I could go faster than I was on the MotoGP bike today but we will see. We're struggling braking, we're struggling in turning, we're struggling in acceleration, everywhere, it's not just one area.

"We can't stop the bike in the distance we need too, and it's not the new brakes, so the corner speed is a bit low and if you're running in a section corner-to-corner, you're out of sync because you're wide, your acceleration is later, you're wider in the next corner… you just lose the time.

"At the end of the day, we had a wet session and a dry session, they were both useless for us. We need to come out tomorrow and do something. Ideally, we will have a wet session and a dry session so we can see where we have improved."