Cal Crutchlow scored his first points in the 2016 MotoGP World Championship this Sunday aboard his RC213V in factory configuration following the Spanish Grand Prix which took place this Sunday at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit.
After having experienced a difficult weekend since Friday, the positive aspects for the 30-year-old Briton remain that he will not have given up despite more than mixed sensations on his machine throughout the 27 laps of the event. The team will now be able to analyze all the data from this Andalusian round to try to understand what they were missing.
With the track temperature reaching its highest threshold of the entire weekend during the MotoGP race, the Coventry native did not have the opportunity to repeat the long series of fast laps he had completed in the morning during the traditional Sunday warm-up. After starting from the 10rd place on the grid, Cal Crutchlow tried to keep pace with the Ducati riders who were ahead of him before being subject to grip problems at the end of the Grand Prix. He then maintained a pace which ultimately allowed him to collect his first points of the season.
The LCR Honda team will stay on the Andalusian track in Jerez on Monday for a day of testing before focusing on the fifth round of the championship which will take place in France in two weeks.
Cal Crutchlow #35 – 11rd
“This weekend was generally difficult and I must admit that I am relieved to have finished the race. We think we had a tire problem because this morning during warm-up, I was able to do a good number of fast laps with tires that already had wear from the Grand Prix distance. I felt like I needed to drive more flexibly during the race but that obviously wasn't enough. The last ten laps really proved difficult. We're not entirely sure that's what it was, but we know for a fact that we had a lot of vibrations. I had to shift into sixth gear on the stretches where I usually use fifth gear to try to stop the phenomenon or at least mitigate it.”
“There are no excuses to be made and we got what we deserve. I only got eleventh position but I at least finished the race. This does not mean that I derive any satisfaction from it, quite the contrary. To be completely honest, before the race I thought I would be able to fight with Dani Pedrosa. There is no doubt in my mind that I should have fought for the places of honor today but for various reasons the Honda's pace dropped ten laps from the finish. Honda has been working hard since the start of the season and we will at least be able to provide them with information accumulated over the entire distance of a race in the hope that it can be useful and beneficial to them.”
Ranking in the 2016 MotoGP world championship: 18rd / 5 points
