LCR Honda CASTROL rider Cal Crutchlow will start from the fifth row in the Austrian Grand Prix as weather again played its part at the Red Bull Ring on Saturday. The Briton – who finished fourth in Spielberg back in 2018 – remains hopeful of producing a positive result on Sunday, but will now have to come from 15th on the grid.
Having finished Friday in 14th position, Crutchlow’s hopes of forcing his way into Q2 were undermined by rain in the morning which meant FP3 took place on a drying track. Although he went 10th quickest in the session, the 34-year-old remained in 14th in the combined times and was then unable to progress from an ultra-competitive Q1 session that featured the likes of Valentino Rossi, Johann Zarco and Danilo Petrucci.
Cal Crutchlow – 15th (1’24.228)
“Today I didn’t find the feeling in the qualifying session to be able to go any faster, evidently I was pushing, I’ve been pushing every session here to try and do a lap time, but at the moment it doesn’t seem that everything has clicked and we haven’t found a good way to ride with the bike. On a brighter note, my arm has started to feel a little bit better this race weekend. My left wrist has been difficult to manage for the last couple of race weekends and I feel better here, so that’s good and a positive thing for the race. We’ll try and work with the team overnight to make some changes and improve for the race tomorrow, it will be a long 27 laps. I’ve had a great result here in the past, in 2018, and we’ll try to do it again.”
Q1 & Q2 combined:
| Pos | Rider | Team | Fastest lap |
| 1 | Maverick VIÑALES | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | 1’23.450 |
| 2 | Jack MILLER | Pramac Racing | 1’23.518 |
| 3 | Fabio QUARTARARO | Petronas Yamaha SRT | 1’23.537 |
| 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Ducati Team | 1’23.606 |
| 5 | Pol ESPARGARO | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 1’23.612 |
| 6 | Joan MIR | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 1’23.673 |
| 7 | Franco MORBIDELLI | Petronas Yamaha SRT | 1’23.719 |
| 8 | Alex RINS | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 1’23.731 |
| 9 | Johann ZARCO | Esponsorama Racing | 1’23.828 |
| 10 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | LCR Honda IDEMITSU | 1’23.872 |
| 11 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | 1’23.939 |
| 12 | Valentino ROSSI | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | 1’23.995 |
| 13 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati Team | 1’23.915 |
| 14 | Aleix ESPARGARO | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 1’24.151 |
| 15 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | LCR Honda CASTROL | 1’24.228 |
| 16 | Iker LECUONA | Red Bull KTM Tech 3 | 1’24.405 |
| 17 | Brad BINDER | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 1’24.485 |
| 18 | Alex MARQUEZ | Repsol Honda Team | 1’24.490 |
| 19 | Stefan BRADL | Repsol Honda Team | 1’24.662 |
| 20 | Bradley SMITH | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 1’24.831 |
| 21 | Tito RABAT | Esponsorama Racing | 1’25.287 |
| 22 | Michele PIRRO | Pramac Racing | 1’25.431 |
Source: motogp.com, lcr.mc