Cal Crutchlow fourth in Estoril test

Cal Crutchlow’s brilliant rookie season in the MotoGP world championship continued yesterday when the British rider clocked the fourth fastest time during a one-day test at the Estoril circuit.

The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider was one of only four riders to break into the 1.36 bracket. And Marco Simoncelli, reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo and Repsol Honda star Casey Stoner, only bettered Crutchlow’s quickest lap of 1.36.850.

The 25-year-old concentrated on modifications to the settings he used to finish eighth in Sunday’s Estoril race, which was his second top ten finish in his opening three premier class races.

Crutchlow changed the handlebar position and lengthened the wheelbase on his YZR-M1 machine to help make the bike less aggressive after he lost seventh place to Hiroshi Aoyama on the final lap of Sunday’s clash.

The 2009 World Supersport champion shaved close to two seconds off his best race pace and he said: “It was a really positive test and I can’t really ask for much more than finishing fourth quickest with only three of the fastest riders in the world in front of me.”

“I was able to lap nearly two seconds faster than I did in the race, but I was quietly confident that with the changes we planned to make for today that I would be a lot faster. Losing so much track time because of the weather at the weekend meant I couldn’t risk taking a gamble on making too many changes for the race.”

“I honestly didn’t expect to break into the 36s but I felt comfortable and even with 25-laps on the same set of tyres I was doing low to mid-37s. I know everyone goes faster in a test but my time was faster than Dani Pedrosa’s best lap in the race and he won, so my pace bodes well for the future.”

“We moved the handlebars and lengthened the wheelbase and I just felt much more comfortable. The bike was a lot easier to ride and much less aggressive and I was fast throughout the whole day.  If I’d had this set-up for the race I’m sure I could have had a battle with Colin (Edwards), and he was sixth, so that’s really encouraging.”