Britain's Cal Crutchlow ended the final MotoGP pre-season test in Qatar a full second off the pace and behind Tito Rabat as he struggles to get to grips with the front-end of his 2019 LCR Honda RC213V.
The Coventry native, who is still recovering from a badly-broken ankle, suffered a crash last night which added to his problems and he said there is a lot to do before they can even think about racing.
"At the moment I don’t have the front feeling with this bike, and it seems no matter which way you chop and change it, it’s not the way I’m used to," said Crutchlow on Sunday.
"It seems all the Hondas were struggling a lot yesterday, so we are trying to adjust the base setting of the bike for this circuit. It’s a special circuit here compared to the rest.
"Malaysia we had no real problems, but I didn’t feel comfortable with the front of the bike and here I feel even worse. I think it shows in the laptime. We’ve been struggling with the laptime on the 2019 bike here, that’s for sure."
Reigning and former champions Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo were able to squeeze some pace out of the bike, both finishing four-tenths off the pace in fourth and sixth places respectively.
