Crutchlow shines under Qatar floodlights
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01/01/1970
The second night of practice in advance of the 10th running of the Qatar MotoGP race in Doha on Sunday evening saw Cal Crutchlow shine under the impressive Losail International Circuit floodlights.
Crutchlow's outstanding form continued in tricky conditions tonight, with light spots of rain falling during the earlier second practice session and a strong wind testing skill and concentration in the third session.
The conditions meant the track surface was one more time extremely slippery but Crutchlow excelled to power his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 machine into the top three again.
The British rider's best pace of 1.56.326 was only 0.242s off the fastest lap time set by rookie Marc Marquez, while teammate Smith produced a magnificent performance to finish inside the top 10.
Tonight's result means under the new qualifying format, Crutchow is automatically seeded into tomorrow night's second 15-minute qualifying session in which 12 riders will battle it out for grid positions on the first four rows.
Cal Crutchlow 3rd - 1.56.326:
“The track was not in a good condition again tonight and it was very dirty but I am still happy with my performance and it is good to remain inside the top three. I was confident I'd be in the top 10 to move straight into QP2 and I am looking forward to the 15-minute session to decide places on the grid tomorrow night. I think it will be exciting for the fans and also for us because nobody will be hanging around. I felt comfortable on the bike again in the second session because we made a couple of changes earlier that didn't really work. I still need to improve in the braking zone and I'd like to improve the rear grip too, but I have been fast in every session so far and that bodes well for the race on Sunday night.”
