If it were up to Cal Crutchlow, it is undoubtedly on the Sepang track that he would like to start his new season in MotoGP. In Malaysia, during the tests, he did not do badly. While in Qatar, which will mark the start of 2019 hostilities, he felt the unpleasant feeling of starting a desert crossing with his Honda. The setting was suitable, but if the oasis was seen, it was only a mirage. Large grains of sand seem to hinder the smooth running of the new Honda in the hands of the Englishman...
During the 39 laps he was able to complete, Crutchlow focused on improving his feel with the 2019 machine and was happy with the progress made over the last three nights of work. Like many other riders, the British rider suffered a crash in difficult conditions, but was able to continue testing once his machine was repaired.
Concentrating on the pace of the race, he did not fit a soft tire to score a fast lap and he finished the session 17th in the drivers' standings. His time was still within a second of the fastest lap of the test.
« I felt a little better with the bike on this last day, but we only had limited resources because there was only one bike to use. Overall I felt we improved his tuning » comments the teammate Nakagami who then regrets having made a mistake… “ Unfortunately, I crashed mid-session and it took us a while to rebuild this machine. We came back and did a few laps, then we wanted to make a bigger change and it still took a while ».
He finishes : " we are satisfied with the work we have accomplished. Although we are not happy with our ranking. Overall, I think we have better pace than the position says. But for now, I don't feel the bike and I'm not of much help to Honda. We'll see what we can do in the coming weeks in Qatar, but we're all looking forward to getting back racing ". He leaves the place slipping: “ it's incredible: every rider says it had a fantastic test, a great feeling with good speed. I can't say that. And that's three days of my life, I don't want to relive them again".
MotoGP, Qatar J3 Test: times
| 1 | 12 | Maverick Vinales | Yamaha M1 | 1:54.208 | ||
| 2 | 20 | fabio quartararo | Yamaha M1 | 1:54.441 | 0.233 | 0.233 |
| 3 | 93 | Marc Márquez | Honda RC213V | 1:54.613 | 0.405 | 0.172 |
| 4 | 46 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha M1 | 1:54.651 | 0.443 | 0.038 |
| 5 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Honda RC213V | 1:54.653 | 0.445 | 0.002 |
| 6 | 21 | Franco Morbidelli | Yamaha M1 | 1:54.660 | 0.452 | 0.007 |
| 7 | 44 | Pol Espargaro | KTM RC16 | 1:54.770 | 0.562 | 0.110 |
| 8 | 30 | Takaaki Nakagami | Honda RC213V | 1:54.789 | 0.581 | 0.019 |
| 9 | 9 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati GP19 | 1:54.818 | 0.610 | 0.029 |
| 10 | 43 | Jack Miller | Ducati GP19 | 1:54.851 | 0.643 | 0.033 |
| 11 | 42 | Alex Rins | Suzuki GSX-RR | 1:54.852 | 0.644 | 0.001 |
| 12 | 36 | Joan mir | Suzuki GSX-RR | 1:54.997 | 0.789 | 0.145 |
| 13 | 63 | Francis Bagnaia | Ducati GP18 | 1:55.074 | 0.866 | 0.077 |
| 14 | 53 | Tito Rabat | Ducati GP18 | 1:55.229 | 1.021 | 0.155 |
| 15 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati GP19 | 1:55.233 | 1.025 | 0.004 |
| 16 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Aprilia RS-GP | 1:55.343 | 1.135 | 0.110 |
| 17 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda RC213V | 1:55.690 | 1.482 | 0.347 |
| 18 | 88 | Miguel Oliveira | KTM RC16 | 1:55.773 | 1.565 | 0.083 |
| 19 | 41 | Aleix Espargaró | Aprilia RS-GP | 1:55.814 | 1.606 | 0.041 |
| 20 | 38 | Bradley Smith | Aprilia RS-GP | 1:56.072 | 1.864 | 0.258 |
| 21 | 17 | Karel Abraham | Ducati GP18 | 1:56.121 | 1.913 | 0.049 |
| 22 | 5 | Johann zarco | KTM RC16 | 1:56.162 | 1.954 | 0.041 |
| 23 | 55 | Hafiz Syahrin | KTM RC16 | 1:56.371 | 2.163 | 0.209 |
