Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso put the finishing touches on a superb weekend for Monster Yamaha Tech 3 by finishing first and second in the post-race test at Brno. 24 hours after his first podium in MotoGP, Crutchlow led the way despite running on a single set of tyres for the most part and will head to Misano on a high.
“It was a good test and I was really pleased with my times. We did the whole morning and the first run of the afternoon on the same rear tyre and it was an old one from qualifying on Saturday. I did a 56.9 on it, which is basically as fast as my race pace and it had 44 laps on it. We tried some different settings but the only problem I have with this bike now is we make some big changes but the lap time is the same, so you never know which direction to go in. In practice for the race on Friday I struggled with the hard tyre but today I tested it again and I was lot faster and consistent as well, so that was a big positive. We can leave Brno really happy because it has been a great weekend. I signed a new contract with the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team, got my best grid position, scored my first ever MotoGP podium and then set the fastest time at the test today. We can go to Misano in a positive frame of mind and I’m confident we will be challenging close to the front again.”
Dovizioso was just a tenth of a second behind his teammate after concentrating on improving mid-corner speed and the Italian thinks he is starting to make progress in that area.
“It was a positive test today because we tried to understand if a different set-up could help give me more corner speed compared to the race, particularly in the middle of the corner. We found some positive and negative points with the changes we made so it was good to experiment with the set-up and we have found a direction to help me be faster in the middle of the corner. We tried something on the front but this didn’t make such a big difference, so it is clearer now that the improvements have to come from the rear to give me more speed in the middle of the corner. The grip was quite good but the wind was very strong and it was really difficult to do the lap time, so I am happy we made a small improvement and I’m looking forward to seeing how some of the changes we tried work at the next race in Misano.”