Cal Crutchlow finished sixth first day at Sepang. A performance acquired in the morning on a dry track. But English Friday in Malaysia also took place on an afternoon marked by rain. The opportunity to verify, once again, the disastrous behavior of the Honda in these conditions. Once too many if we judge by the annoyance of the LCR pilot who will celebrate his 32nd birthday this Sunday.
Sixth in the dry but fourteenth on a wet track and 1.7s behind Marc Marquez, second overall and best Honda representative in these conditions. This is the extent of the damage for Crutchlow. Jack Miller on the Marc VDS Racing RC213V is twelfth. As for the other HRC official Pedrosa, here he is squarely eighteenth, out of twenty-two present.
At the sight of the disaster, the feelings of Crutchlow oscillate between helplessness and anger: “ In the rain, our bike is really difficult to ride and it's all the more disappointing as it had never been the case before. Miller, Pedrosa and I are suffering while for Márquez everything seems to be going quite well. And we don't understand this situation. If we wanted to keep up with Marquez's pace, we wouldn't even complete half the lap. I tried to shoot with Petrucci, Sam Lowes and Rossi and in one lap I almost fell five times ».
« I don't understand. And it doesn't come from the tires which are pretty much the same as last year's. We are simply nowhere. and we don't understand. We just don't have any traction. I can't even put the bike on the corner. In this case, she just wants to bring you down. Something must be done to radically change this situation ».
#MalaysianGP J.1: Ranking
| 1 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 2'00.671 | ||
| 2 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Ducati | 2'00.742 | 0.071 / 0.071 | |
| 3 | 5 | johann zarco | Yamaha | 2'00.807 | 0.136 / 0.065 | |
| 4 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | Yamaha | 2'00.903 | 0.232 / 0.096 | |
| 5 | 93 | Marc Márquez | Honda | 2'00.950 | 0.279 / 0.047 | |
| 6 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | 2'01.060 | 0.389 / 0.110 | |
| 7 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | Ducati | 2'01.077 | 0.406 / 0.017 | |
| 8 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | Ducati | 2'01.147 | 0.476 / 0.070 | |
| 9 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Honda | 2'01.162 | 0.491 / 0.015 | |
| 10 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Ducati | 2'01.189 | 0.518 / 0.027 | |
| 11 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati | 2'01.560 | 0.889 / 0.371 | |
| 12 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | 2'01.662 | 0.991 / 0.102 | |
| 13 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Suzuki | 2'01.740 | 1.069 / 0.078 | |
| 14 | 43 | Jack Miller | Honda | 2'01.803 | 1.132 / 0.063 | |
| 15 | 44 | Pol Espargaró | KTM | 2'01.831 | 1.160 / 0.028 | |
| 16 | 76 | Loris BAZ | Ducati | 2'02.416 | 1.745 / 0.585 | |
| 17 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | KTM | 2'02.469 | 1.798 / 0.053 | |
| 18 | 45 | Scott REDDING | Ducati | 2'03.056 | 2.385 / 0.587 | |
| 19 | 60 | Michael VAN DER MARK | Yamaha | 2'03.473 | 2.802 / 0.417 | |
| 20 | 53 | Tito RABAT | Honda | 2'03.531 | 2.860 / 0.058 | |
| 21 | 22 | Sam LOWES | Aprilia | 2'03.534 | 2.863 / 0.003 | |
| 22 | 42 | Alex Rins | Suzuki | 2'04.381 | 3.710 / 0.847 | |
