MotoGP: Crutchlow tops one-day test in Catalunya

Cal Crutchlow was a surprise top of the one-day test on Monday that followed the weekend’s race at Montmelò, making the most of cooler track conditions combined with improvements to the bike and its new unified electronics system.

“Obviously we are happy to be quickest overall, it’s nice to be back on top of the timesheet, even though it’s a Monday and it doesn’t mean anything really. We will take some positives from the day though, and we have worked so well together as a team that means we will go to Assen optimistic.

“We used the hard tyre for much of the day, because that would be the race tyre here whatever, and we made some setting changes that we had been wanting to try like softening the front end of the bike, which helped it decelerate quite well. There was some electronic stuff to test too, because that takes so long – about 20 to 30 minutes every time you want to make a decent electronic change.

“We tried the new Michelin front in the morning when it was cooler, and it was positive in some areas and not so good in others, but this is the information they require. Then we tried two new rears towards the end of the day. As you can see from the lap time, they were good. We also tried the ‘over-the-top’ wing for Honda to give them some information. I think maybe it’s a little better.”

There were a number of fallers during the day, however, with Marquez, Iannone, Smith and Pedrosa among the fallers. Valentino Rossi was a later starter after last night’s celebrations, but stayed on with Jorge Lorenzo for an extra day of private testing on Tuesday to run a new chassis and swinging arm.