Obviously, after the always crisp declarations of the friendly British driver, the virtual confrontation between Johann Zarco and Cal Crutchlow, via lap times, was awaited with a certain impatience during this Malaysian Grand Prix.
The French rider did not hesitate to set himself quite ambitious objectives, judging rashly that if his level did not place him in the top 10, he no longer had his place in MotoGP.
Starting the Malaysian weekend in 14th position, overall the level he reached in Australia, John Zarco remained half a second behind his leader within the LCR Honda clan on Friday. But the next day, the eighth time achieved during FP3 definitively pre-qualified him for Q2, ousting the native of Coventry in the process.
Stung to the quick, Cal Crutchlow reacted energetically by achieving the best time in Q1 before taking advantage of this additional warm-up and qualifying in 5th position, one line ahead of a Johann zarco 2 tenths slower.
Although this clash between temporary brothers in arms was never openly verbalized, it was obviously going to constitute one of the points of interest of the race which took place over 20 laps this morning. However, it only took one, the first, for the representative of the perfidious Albion to be overtaken by the “bloody French” from the first corner, despite a bad start from the Frenchman wearing the number 5.
From then on, the spearhead of Lucio Cecchinello had no other choice than to whip his mount to try to catch up with the 213 RC2018V of his main adversary which was sitting indelicately just in front of his front wheel...
But after two laps, the compatriot of Joan of Arc managed to make Danilo Petrucci a shield between his saddle backrest and the air intake of the Honda number 35, to protect himself from a possible inconsiderate attempt by the Englishman. This one, in difficulty with the productions of Clermont-Ferrand, ended up falling in turn 15 six laps from the finish, while he occupied 12th place.
Failing to benefit from it, since he himself was harpooned by a Joan mir a little too optimistic 2 rounds later, John Zarco certainly emerges reinforced by this pass of arms.
To Cal Crutchlow, a battle was certainly lost, but the revenge is already scheduled in 15 days, in Valencia…
Cal Crutchlow : “Today was a difficult race. We are very disappointed with this result, a crash, at the Malaysian Grand Prix. Today I had a very bad start and from the first lap I found myself very far back in the peloton. In fact, the whole problem started with a very bad start. At Phillip Island, I made a great start, the thrust was constant. Here too, my first meters were the best of the entire peloton. It couldn't have been better. But when I wanted to change gear, I had no more power. Five or six drivers immediately overtook me. Then I was pushed into the slow S-bends, and then two or three other bikes passed by. I was eleventh after the first lap and in the group fighting for 8th place. But that's not the goal I had. Actually, I wanted to be in the top 5. But for that, you have to be with these guys from the start. I tried to go back up but I had a bad feeling with the tires today: I didn't have good grip on the track or with our bike setup.
Over the weekend I felt like we had improved and could have had a good result today, but after the bad start I struggled to keep pace with the leaders. Concerning the fall, I made a small mistake when braking because I was trying everything to find grip with the front tire, and unfortunately I locked the front. I crashed in the last corner because I couldn't brake the bike. First the rear wheel locked, then the front wheel slipped away. I hadn't fallen since Misano. It was exactly the same fall as in Misano. You have to put the bike a little sideways to be able to brake. Yesterday I was able to do much better on this track. This was probably due to the grip conditions. I felt very good yesterday in FP4 with the worn tire. This time our settings were for racing but probably for a track with more grip. But I had no grip at all from the start. The front tire couldn't be steered and there was no traction in the rear.
But we had some good last races and we are looking forward to the season finale in Valencia. I no longer care about points, but about victories and places on the podium. I stopped looking at the leaderboard after the fall in Texas. We now have to try to be faster in Valencia and then see what we can do for 2020.”
Ranking MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang:
Credit for rankings and cover photo: MotoGP.com
