Cal Crutchlow is well-placed after the opening day of free practice for the Valencia Grand Prix. The LCR Honda CASTROL rider finished in 7th position overall and will now be confident of securing automatic progress to Q2 when the action resumes at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo on Saturday. In contrast to last weekend’s wet conditions, Valencia was bathed in autumnal sunshine on Friday and Crutchlow made the most of it to force his way into the top 10. The Briton managed only 14th in FP1, but improved by over half a second in FP2 to put himself amongst the pacesetters and just three tenths behind overnight leader, Jack Miller.
Cal Crutchlow – 7th (1’30.930)
“Today we worked well as a team and the track was in a lot better condition than last weekend with regard to it not being half wet and half dry, it was a very good day. We worked well and we tried to improve the bike, two different settings with the bike and we’ll continue to try and do that for practice and qualifying.”
Results FP2:
| Pos | Rider | Team | Fastest lap |
| 1 | Jack MILLER | Pramac Racing | 1’30.622 |
| 2 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | LCR Honda IDEMITSU | 1’30.713 |
| 3 | Francesco BAGNAIA | Pramac Racing | 1’30.742 |
| 4 | Pol ESPARGARO | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 1’30.821 |
| 5 | Johann ZARCO | Esponsorama Racing | 1’30.899 |
| 6 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Ducati Team | 1’30.926 |
| 7 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | LCR Honda CASTROL | 1’30.930 |
| 8 | Alex RINS | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 1’30.947 |
| 9 | Aleix ESPARGARO | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 1’30.989 |
| 10 | Maverick VIÑALES | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | 1’31.062 |
| 11 | Joan MIR | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 1’31.080 |
| 12 | Stefan BRADL | Repsol Honda Team | 1’31.106 |
| 13 | Franco MORBIDELLI | Petronas Yamaha SRT | 1’31.125 |
| 14 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati Team | 1’31.230 |
| 15 | Brad BINDER | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 1’31.261 |
| 16 | Fabio QUARTARARO | Petronas Yamaha SRT | 1’31.326 |
| 17 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | 1’31.330 |
| 18 | Valentino ROSSI | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | 1’31.371 |
| 19 | Alex MARQUEZ | Repsol Honda Team | 1’31.371 |
| 20 | Tito RABAT | Esponsorama Racing | 1’32.058 |
| 21 | Lorenzo SAVADORI | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 1’32.393 |
| 22 | Iker LECUONA | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 |
Source: motogp.com, lcr.mc