MotoGP Austin: Crutchlow struggles with new chassis

Britain’s Cal Crutchlow ended yesterday’s Austin MotoGP round in seventh place and 17s off leader Marc Marquez after struggling to change direction with the new chassis he has been given by HRC.

The CWM LCR man got caught up in the Scott Redding/Pol Espargaro interface and then couldn’t jump across the gap to Bradley Smith and Jorge Lorenzo, eventually battling and passing Aleix Espargaro’s Ecstar Suzuki before riding on his own race.

“We got caught up in the crash and weren’t able to make it over the gap. Normally I could have made that gap up, whatever bike I was on, but I had such a bad feeling and was nearly on the ground so many times I had to ride my own race and finish,” said Crutchlow, speaking in Austin.

“It’s disappointing to finish 17 seconds down but the reality is we are probably a lot closer, where we should have finished but that’s life. I was excited about being in that front battle but we weren’t, we have the reasons why and we need to improve my feeling with the bike and with the new chassis.

“I found the bike really heavy to change direction in the first sector and the braking was really inconsistent throughout the race, so I had to manage. Seventh is not where I want to finish. We have to improve and go to the next race more confident.

“The rear tyre was not working at the start of the race and I was locking the front to make time under brakes in the middle of the corner, then losing the run on to the straight. I lost four seconds in one lap. I would be more disappointed if I was in that front group and then finished miles back. I was already miles back and I finished miles back. In the middle of the race I was doing the same kind of laptimes as Marc, he did a 2’05.1 I did a 2’05.3.”

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