Cal Crutchlow had to settle for a spot on the third row for Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix at Spielberg after an eventful day of qualifying. Having been eighth quickest overnight, the LCR Honda CASTROL rider had to come through Q1 as he struggled to find any rhythm at the Red Bull Ring on Saturday, but remains optimistic at a circuit where he finished fourth last year.
#35 Cal Crutchlow (9th – 1’23.754)
“I was ninth for a reason, I’ve not felt good all weekend and today was probably one of the hardest days I’ve had in my career on a motorbike; with changes, with different bikes and not feeling great. But we still managed to do a good enough lap time to be in the top 10, but that’s not where we want to be – we want to be faster. I am optimistic for our race pace though. The way our bike is set up this weekend, I think I’ll feel more comfortable in the middle of the race, not the start. We’ve had some issues with the brakes this weekend which is not great heading into the race, but we’ll see how we go tomorrow”.
Results Q1 & Q2 combined:
| Pos | Rider | Team | Fastest lap |
| 1 | Marc MARQUEZ | Repsol Honda Team | 1’23.027 |
| 2 | Fabio QUARTARARO | Petronas Yamaha SRT | 1’23.461 |
| 3 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Ducati Team | 1’23.515 |
| 4 | Maverick VIÑALES | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | 1’23.523 |
| 5 | Francesco BAGNAIA | Pramac Racing | 1’23.652 |
| 6 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | LCR Honda IDEMITSU | 1’23.669 |
| 7 | Alex RINS | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 1’23.681 |
| 8 | Jack MILLER | Pramac Racing | 1’23.688 |
| 9 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | LCR Honda CASTROL | 1’23.754 |
| 10 | Valentino ROSSI | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | 1’23.817 |
| 11 | Pol ESPARGARO | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 1’23.866 |
| 12 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati Team | 1’23.964 |
| 13 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | 1’24.130 |
| 14 | Franco MORBIDELLI | Petronas Yamaha SRT | 1’24.270 |
| 15 | Tito RABAT | Reale Avintia Racing | 1’24.389 |
| 16 | Johann ZARCO | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 1’24.392 |
| 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | Reale Avintia Racing | 1’24.423 |
| 18 | Andrea IANNONE | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 1’24.526 |
| 19 | Aleix ESPARGARO | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 1’24.749 |
| 20 | Hafizh SYAHRIN | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | 1’24.759 |
| 21 | Stefan BRADL | Repsol Honda Team | 1’25.020 |
Source: motogp.com, lcr.mc