MotoGP: Frustrated Crutchlow ‘just not good enough’

A frustrated Cal Crutchlow has admitted that his set-up on the LCR Honda just wasn’t good enough to keep the pace of Repsol Honda rival Marc Marquez in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix. The Brit crashed out of contention in the early stages of the race, admitting that he made a mistake trying to stay in the battle with the leaders.

“It was frustrating because we’ve had another good weekend in terms of our pace, but unfortunately our set-up for the race was just not good enough. The front tyre was overheating and I was struggling for more rear grip compare to the others. The pace was yo-yoing a lot and I had to make it all up under braking and that meant the front tyre was getting hot. I had to try and stay out of the slipstream a lot.”

It seems I leant the bike a little too much in turn one, and we think I might have touched the white line but we haven’t had chance to analyse it just yet. It was exactly the same situation as in Texas. It was when I was on the throttle, and if you do that on the white line on full lean…”

“Obviously I’m disappointed, I feel it’s an easy podium let go. Maybe the race win would have been more difficult, but we have to take the positives from the weekend and go to Le Mans knowing we have the speed to be up there again. It just wasn’t our day.”

There was another positive to the weekend for the Brit in the shape of a successful test on the Monday following the race. Reconfirming what they already knew about the bike and learning more too, he says it stands them in good stead for the next round.

“Today was a positive day, as you could see by the times we underlined our speed over the weekend, but it doesn’t make yesterday any easier to accept. But we worked again in a positive way and I felt good with the bike. We still need to find some rear grip compared to our competitors, because eventually we end up overheating the front tyre because there isn’t enough rear grip. That’s the situation, but we’re pleased with the way the team worked and Honda have done a good job as well to assess our situation and try to help us a little. We’ll go to the next race in Le Mans in a positive frame of mind.”