Cal Crutchlow and the LCR Honda Team turned around their fortunes during qualifying to ensure the Briton will start Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix from the fourth row of the grid. Having been forced to take part in the preliminary qualifying session, Crutchlow progressed from that 15-minute shootout easily with the fastest lap time. The Brit then went on to lower his best lap even further to set the tenth quickest time of the qualifying final, giving him a much better chance of a good result in the first European race of the year. The team still have work to do overnight, with significant improvements still possible all round, but Cal is confident about putting in a solid performance to bring the team their first points of the season.

Cal Crutchlow:
“It’s not been an easy weekend around Jerez, we’re all using these harder construction rear tyres but the fronts are also proving tricky too. As per usual it looks like Marc (Marquez) is the only one able to ride to the full potential of rider and bike, whereas myself and Dani (Pedrosa) are struggling a bit more. I knew I had to pull something out of the bag during qualifying though, and while it went OK I pressed the wrong power map button which meant I lost lots of time in the straights. That was completely my own fault though. There’s a really tight group all in close proximity around us, but we just need to see how things go in the race. I’m not too impressed or happy with today because I’m not here to finish tenth, and I think our real potential is around fifth place. It’s the way it is though, sometimes you have good or bad days, but hopefully working closely with Honda we can sort something out and build race by race.”

 

Results Q1 + Q2 combined:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

source: motogp.com, lcr.mc