MotoGP, Catalonia, J2, Cal Crutchlow: “The track is not in good condition and the tires offer no grip to anyone”

With the ninth place obtained this Saturday during the qualifying session, Crutchlow positioned himself on the third row of the starting grid, which is a clear advantage compared to his two main current opponents in the provisional ranking of the World Championship. Jack Miller, with whom he is tied with 42 points, only occupies fourteenth place on the fifth row. His teammate Takaaki Nakagami, with 40 points, is sixteenth on the sixth row.

On the first day in Catalonia, Cal narrowly climbed into the top 10 with the tenth fastest time on Friday, 0.6 behind fabio quartararo. He raised the bar splendidly on Saturday morning and closed free practice in third position behind alex rins and El Diablo. His ninth place in qualifying, 0.6 behind Rins, allowed him to move ahead Jorge Lorenzo at home in Spain, also on Honda.

Although not having gone through the Moto3-Moto2 sector, but through that of Supersport-Superbike, Crutchlow has solid experience in Grand Prix with 144 races to his credit, all in MotoGP, with 3 victories, 17 podiums and 4 poles. positions. Very proud of his victories on the wet in Brno in 2016 and in Argentina in 2018, it is especially his triumph at Phillip Island on the dry in 2016 that leaves him with the best memories.

This year, Cal has qualified four times on one of the top two rows in six Grands Prix, with the third time in the United States, and the sixth in Qatar, Spain and Italy. He finished third in the first GP at Losail, then finished eighth twice at Jerez and Mugello.

According to Cal Crutchlow, “ My lap was as good as it could be in free practice and that's how I qualified straight to move on to Q2, but then my qualifying lap wasn't good enough. That’s why I’m third in line.”

“I have problems entering corners. On my fastest lap, I made a big mistake.”

“I think my pace for the race is not that bad. My difficulties are due to the bike, it cannot be controlled in the corners as I would like.”

“The track conditions here are difficult for everyone, but especially for the Honda riders. The track is not in good condition and the tires offer no grip to anyone. »

Qualification results:

Reference times:

Test record: 1'38.680 by Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati) in 2018

Lap record: 1'40.021 by Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati) in 2018

Best top speed: 348,8 km/h for Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) in FP2 in 2018

Provisional ranking of the World Championship:

1 Marc MÁRQUEZ – Honda 115 points

2 Andrea DOVIZIOSO – Ducati 103

3 Alex RINS – Suzuki 88

4 Danilo PETRUCCI – Ducati 82

5 Valentino ROSSI – Yamaha 72

6 Jack MILLER – Ducati 42

7 Cal CRUTCHLOW – Honda 42

8 Maverick VIÑALES – Yamaha 40

9 Takaaki NAKAGAMI – Honda 40

10 Pol ESPARGARÓ – KTM 38

11 Franco MORBIDELLI – Yamaha 34

12 Fabio QUARTARARO – Yamaha 31

13 Aleix ESPARGARÓ – Aprilia 27

14 Jorge LORENZO – Honda 19

15 Joan MIR – Suzuki 12

16 Johann ZARCO – KTM 10

17 Michele PIRRO – Ducati 9

18 Francesco BAGNAIA – Ducati 9

19 Miguel OLIVEIRA – KTM 8

20 Andrea IANNONE – Aprilia 7

21 Stefan BRADL – Honda 6

22 Karel ABRAHAM – Ducati 2

23 Hafizh SYAHRIN – KTM 2

24 Tito RABAT – Ducati 2

Video: Small fall

Video: Happy Crutchlow!

Photos © LCR Honda Team