On a difficult weekend for the MotoGP World Championship following the sad passing of Luis Salom during the Moto2 practice on Friday, the qualifying sessions at the Grand Prix of Catalunya went ahead as scheduled with the blessing of the Spanish rider’s family and team. The tragic incident led to overnight track changes at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow one of the riders on the Safety Commission who helped decide on a new configuration. Following the layout used by Formula 1 cars, it meant a much slower and tighter final sector, which forced the riders to work hard to find a new set-up as well as learn the best lines. Crutchlow has been in impressive form all weekend nonetheless, and ultimately qualified his LCR Honda on the third row of the grid with the seventh fastest time of the session. With a best time of 1’44.366 he was less than a tenth off the front row positions, and as such is confident of putting in a good performance in Sunday’s race.

Cal Crutchlow:
“It’s been an emotional day for all of us, and as part of the Rider Safety Commission along with Dorna we took the decision to alter the circuit in the best way we could. I don’t think we did a bad job because it means we are able to race safely, even though the new layout is not great. It is tight, twisty and difficult to get used to, but it was the best solution available. The last sector was my best sector yesterday, but we did the best job with it we could today. We have to go into tomorrow quite positive, because I feel ok on the bike despite some setting problems. I’m just a little disappointed not to be on the front row because with just another half a tenth I could be there.”

Results Q1 + Q2 combined:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source : motogp.com, lcr.mc