Cal Crutchlow was frustrated after a crash late in today's qualifying cost him a chance of the starting on the third row. The Briton was in eighth place before losing control at turn ten and although he returned to the track at the end of the session, he couldn't avoid falling to 11th.
Crutchlow described the mistake as “silly” but feels he still has the pace to deliver a strong performance in tomorrow's race.
“I’m happy on one hand because we made a big change to the bike to help it turn better and it was a really good step. But I’m a little disappointed on the other hand because I made a silly little mistake that probably cost me the chance to get on the third row. We were making some good progress with the new front set-up and I was faster in the first two splits than my previous best lap when I just ran in too hot at Turn 10. I should have just ran into the gravel but I tried to make the corner, squeezed the brake a bit harder and down I went. It’s one of those things when you’re pushing hard against this level of competition but I’ve felt much better on the bike here this weekend. My times have been consistently on the edge of the top six and I felt I could have probably qualified sixth or seventh. My race pace has been strong so I’m just looking forward to having a good race tomorrow and picking up valuable points.”
Colin Edwards avoided such mistakes to qualify eighth on his YZR-M1. The American struggled for grip on Friday but revealed that a change to a more familiar set-up reaped benefits in qualifying.
“I’m much happier today with the performance of the bike and I need to say a big thanks to my Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew again for their incredible work. Yesterday I just wasn’t comfortable at all and had no feeling with the front or rear of the bike. I told my crew what I was feeling on the track and it is up to them to interpret that and try and improve the bike. And today they did an absolutely awesome job and I had a much better package. I went from feeling like I was riding on marbles yesterday to having a lot of traction today and I felt much more comfortable.”
“We actually just threw in last year’s race set-up and even though I’m using a completely different chassis, it worked brilliantly, although I’m still 0.4s slower than last year. I’m not sure why that is. I’m not sure if the track lost some grip after the rain this morning because this afternoon in the dry my bike was so much better than yesterday, so I can’t really compare. Looking at the calibre of the guys in front of me and what they are riding, I think to be completely realistic, I wouldn’t be upset to finish where I qualified.”
