Successful test for Crutchlow and Tech 3
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01/01/1970
Cal Crutchlow ended a successful three-day test at the Sepang International Circuit on a high note after the British rider finished inside the top 10 on the final timesheets.
Heavy rain that fell this morning gave the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team duo the chance to complete a handful of laps on Bridgestone's rain tyres, with Crutchlow completing nine and Smith seven laps before the track started to dry out in extreme heat.
The morning rain had a clear impact on grip levels for the remainder of the final day, with both Crutchlow and Smith unable to better thei r pace from the second day's action in Malaysia.
Crutchlow completed a total of 59 laps today to set a best time of 2.01.094, which put him in sixth position and less than 0.1s away from the top three as he worked on improving corner entry performance on his YZR-M1 machine.
A best time of 2.00.907 set yesterday meant Crutchlow finished fourth fastest on the overall leaderboard.
Cal Crutchlow 6th 2.01.094 – 59 laps:
“I am leaving this test in a positive frame of mind because I am fourth overall and although I was only sixth quickest today I actually think I could have been fastest. When everybody was pushing hard for a fast lap time at the end of the day I got held up on every lap but I am not worried about that. We have worked very hard this week to improve our package and today we gained more valuable information. I still lose a bit in the braking area and rolling into the corner. We tried to improve that but made the braking worse. But when we make the braking better we have no grip. So it is finding a compromise. We tried two different settings on the different bikes and one was better for braking and the other one was better for grip, so we need to find the best of both and put them together. I am not that far off the top three and they are all on factory machinery, so that is encouraging. To be fourth overall is very positive and I definitely think we are in the mix. My target was to be close to the factory guys and we are not too far away.”
