New parts create set-up issue for Cal Crutchlow

A new Yamaha fuel tank and seat unit that Cal Crutchlow raced for the first time in Indianapolis yesterday reversed the British rider’s strong points after he finished in fifth position.

Crutchlow has complained frequently about his inability to push hard in the early stages of races while his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 has a full fuel load.

He finally got the same fuel tank and seat unit that has been used all season by factory duo Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi, which puts more weight on the rear to improve braking on a full fuel load.

But while the new parts were a clear improvement in the early laps, Crutchlow’s lack of experience in setting up the bike with the updates meant the balance of his YZR-M1 was wrong.

So instead of coming on fast and strong in the second half of the race as he normally does when the fuel load lightens, Crutchlow was unable to mount his usual charge.

He was locked in a terrific tussle with Alvaro Bautista and Valentino Rossi for fourth in the final stages and it looked like Crutchlow had won the battle when he led the trio on the final lap.

But ruthless Rossi attacked at the penultimate corner to bump Crutchlow back to fifth and he said: “We just got the balance of the bike wrong. My start was probably my best start to a race in a long time. The first five laps were a lot better than usual. But after 10 laps I had no rear grip and normally in every other race like in Germany, Mugello and Assen I come stronger. Clearly we couldn’t in this race. I was fast at the start of the race and bad at the end.

We’re normally the opposite way around. But we didn’t know how the tank would work until the race. Free practice is not 27 laps long when you have to make changes and now we know for Brno. We were disappointed to finish so far away from the podium. But we were still the top satellite team. We have to take the positives from that. But there weren’t too many other positives from the race.”

Crutchlow now heads back to Europe for the Brno race this weekend, which is immediately followed by his crucial home clash at Silverstone on September 1.
Some think the next two races present the 27-year-old with his best opportunity to end Britain’s long wait for a premier class victory but Crutchlow has played down his chances.

It was in Brno last season that he scored his first MotoGP podium and Crutchlow would love nothing more than breaking his victory duck in front of his home crowd.
Asked to assess his chances of stopping Marc Marquez, Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo’s domination in the next two races he said: “Looking at previous results I would say no because we have been 17 and 19 seconds off the winner in the last two races. But anything can happen. The front three are in another level but for Jorge to be five seconds off the winner at this track is really impressive. I felt I was on the limit and I was 10 seconds behind him.”

For the exclusive thoughts of Casey Stoner and Jerry Burgess on Crutchlow’s move to Ducati in 2014, see the August 21 issue of MCN.