Britain’s Cal Crutchlow has said his return to form since the Aragon MotoGP round is down to a return of confidence and getting more comfortable on the Ducati GP14.

Crutchlow, who ended today in sixth on the Valencia combined timesheets, reckons his self-belief took a massive knock with the crash and subsequent hand injury at Austin, and it has just taken time to get it all back together again on a bike that hasn’t changed since the Sepang tests.

“I just feel more comfortable with the bike, I am willing to push a bit more. It took me a long time, I believe, to get over my crash at Austin and the injury. My confidence was no good in the middle of the year - something had to change,” said Crutchlow, speaking at Valencia.

“I started to push a little bit more and at Aragon I felt quite comfortable. With the Aragon race, not even in the wet when we got the podium, I mean in the dry we we a lot faster then in other weekend and closer to the other Ducatis.

“Since then we have been able to be more competitive and where I was losing in the braking, now we are gaining so, as I said, it’s not too bad with a bike that we have been riding all year. A little comes from inside but the team is working a lot better.”

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