The Catalan air will definitely have done the greatest good to an LCR team at the start of the season on the verge of disaster. Falling more often than not, the team's only driver, Cal Crutchlow, not only achieved his best result of the year in the race on Sunday, but he also dominated the tests the next day. All with the only time below 1'44 of the day.
Enough to restore morale and once again attract investors whose interest would be welcome when negotiating a continuation of the adventure with Honda. Because Lucio Cecchinello, the boss, still doesn't want to hear about Suzuki satellite. A position shared by the Coventry pilot.
The hour is decisive for the LCR team. The opportunity to discover a Crutchlow supportive and pragmatic as new interests are discovered. So, for example, the ailerons. He used to like to mock them, with the complicity of LCR (see photos below). On the Montmélo route, he changed his mind: “ we tried the over-the-top fins for Honda so they have our feeling with these elements and I think they can add a little extra in performance ».
That said, it wasn’t just the fins: “ We drove with the hard tire for most of the day because it was the rubber we had to opt for for the race. We also had adjustment modifications in our program for the day that we wanted to test, such as an overall softening of the front axle of the bike which brought us satisfaction during the deceleration phases. We also focused on separate testing of electronics as this requires valuable time of around 20-30 minutes each time you want to make concrete changes ».
« We also tried the new front tire brought by Michelin in the morning when the temperature was relatively cool. It had advantages in some areas and disadvantages in others but it was the information they needed. We then tested two new references at the rear at the end of the day and as you can see in terms of times, they are quite efficient."
The former Supersport World Champion concludes: “ there is no doubt that we are all very satisfied to have been the fastest. It's always a good sign to be back at the top of the timesheet even if it's only a Monday after the race and nothing is really significant. We will now take advantage of all the positive aspects of this day during which the cohesion with the team was excellent to be able to approach the Dutch event with a certain optimism. ».
See you on June 26.
