Cal Crutchlow stung into action at Silverstone

Cal Crutchlow’s bid for success in Sunday’s British Grand Prix got off to a difficult start at Silverstone today.

The 27-year-old is bidding to become the first British rider to score a premier class podium on home soil since Jeremy McWilliams in 2000. But he could only finish practice in sixth position.

Crutchlow had come out of the traps flying this morning and was third fastest behind current series leader Marc Marquez and reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo.
The former World Supersport champion was 1.5s faster in hotter conditions for FP2 but he lost three places on the leaderboard, his best time of 2.03.505 leaving him 0.771s behind Lorenzo’s factory Yamaha.

Crutchlow was struggling with too much wheelie and not being able to stop in T2 and T3, his bid to find a solution not helped by constantly switching between a fuel tank and seat unit he’d raced up until the recent Indianapolis clash and new upgrades he got in America.

The new seat and fuel tank is designed to improve Crutchlow’s pace and feeling in the early laps, but so far he has struggled to find a good set-up with the factory upgrades.

Today was no exception and a nasty wasp sting did little to help his preparations in front of a large Friday crowd at the fast and technical Silverstone track.

Crutchlow, who finished sixth in last year’s British Grand Prix said: “I am sixth and it wasn’t a good day at all. I never had a good feeling with the bike and I tried two different bikes. One bike felt good in one area and the other in another but to make a combination is impossible. We need to improve that’s for sure and I could not believe Lorenzo did that lap time.

We need to improve in two sectors. This morning I tried both tanks completely full and this afternoon I tried both completely empty and that’s probably the reason why I’m in the position I am. We were messing around a lot and not working on one set-up, so we need to decide which way to go and stick with it. “Messing about in and out of the pits didn’t really help. Lorenzo is 0.3 to 0.4s quicker but it is in two sectors and we need to improve. But once we stick to one bike I am sure we can.”

Crutchlow remains adamant that the new parts that Lorenzo and nine-times world champion Valentino Rossi have been using all season is an improvement and is the direction he needs to pursue for the final seven races of his Yamaha career.
He said: “I believe the new tank is a lot better but we just haven’t found the right setting with it and what makes it even worse is we are going faster on the old one. It could be a coincidence that I put in a new tyre at that point.”

The wasp sting was a distraction he could have done without. Having got inside his leathers it stung Crutchlow three times. His attempts to try and defeat the battle with the wasp only saw him do a good impression of Tarzan, the Isle of Man-based rider frantically beating his chest to get rid of the insect.

He added: “I went out the pits and I had a wasp in my leathers. The crowd must have thought I was Tarzan because I was trying to kill the thing smashing my own chest and I must have looked like a complete idiot. It stung me three times on my chest and I’ve had quite a few pains ever since and I thought I was going to have a heart attack. It was still in there alive and those sort of things don’t help.”