MotoGP Misano - 'Need to get my mojo back' - Crutchlow

Britain's Cal Crutchlow goes into this weekend's Misano MotoGP round looking to regain his form from earlier in the season, saying his team will go back to square one in order to get his mojo back.

The Monster Yamaha man has had a bad run since his excellent result at the Sachsenring, finishing with three crashes at Silverstone which left him with a still-injured arm that requires treatment.

"We need to back to square one with everything this weekend. Me, the setting with the bike, the whole thing in the last few races has not been working well for one reason or another. We're not at the speed we want. We need to find our mojo again," said Crutchlow, speaking at Misano.

"After Sachsenring, I went from being a second off winning the race and putting ten seconds into the guy behind to Laguna and was useless, and it was a week later. I can't work out how I went from so good to so bad.

"I had the summer break and was quite strong at Indy with the new tank and seat but for the race we set the bike up wrong, completely different to Valentino. At the start of the race I was fast and he was useless and at the end he was fast and I was useless. 

"The problem with the front three guys is they don't crash. I can't work out why or how they are going faster. It's just one of those things. For sure, after Brno, I felt like I had lost some confidence with the front and then at Silverstone I crashed three times on the front. It's like you're going round in circles."

The Isle of Man resident is still struggling with the wound on his arm which was a result of the Silverstone offs. He has had treatment and been in the hyperbaric chamber but says the injury is still red raw.

"My arm after the race about 9pm was the size of my calf. The fluid in it was unbelieveable, the race was a joke, I wasn't happy with my performance at all but I had nothing to give. It wasn't all down to my arm, don't get me wrong, I had no setting all weekend, I was on the back foot, I missed all the practices again and my race time was faster than last year.

"I have been back to the Isle of Man and used the hyperbaric again. Managed to get out cycling but couldn't really do anything and on Tuesday of this week, my arm wasn't healing, wasn't forming a scab and sticking to everything, so tender to touch so I went to hospital and they wanted to operate on Tuesday afternoon.

"I wasn't too keen on that so our doctor over there, Ross Barker an orthopedic surgeon, he said we needed to take the skin off. It's not infected, it just wasn't healing. Luckily, they couldn't get me into theatre so I didn't have to be knocked out to take the skin off.

"They put this cream on and I went back the next day and it came off. But now it is back to square one. It's red raw, I can't touch it, I can't stretch it because the skin will split. Today is the first time I've had the dressing off this week. This is going to be a difficult weekend with my arm."

By David Miller

Image by Bonnie Lane