Cal Crutchlow used the available track time to get used to the Factory Yamaha bike at the Silverstone Circuit. His fastest time of the day took him up to 16th place in the combined free practice results.
The cold morning temperatures (14°C) and tarmac (19°C) also didn‘t bother new Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP rider Crutchlow. The local MotoGP hero used the 45 minutes of FP1 to get used to the Factory Yamaha bike and gradually upped his pace. Knowing Silverstone like the back of his hand, he steadily climbed up the rankings and at the end of the session dipped under the 2‘02s-mark. His 2‘01.966s best time, set on lap 15/17, earned him 12th place, 1.025s from first.
The Briton followed the same strategy in the afternoon. He used most of the available track time to work on race pace and the final third of the session to push. The number-35 rider had just moved up to 17th place before the usual mini time attacks started. He also returned to the pits to switch to medium-soft tyres. Crutchlow improved his time to a 2‘00.882s on his last lap, which secured him 16th position in the FP2 and combined free practice results, 1.565 s from the top.
#35 Cal Crutchlow – P16 – 2.00,882
“It was a day of learning again. In Austria I got used to the feeling of the 2019 bike. I hadn’t ridden the 2021 bike since the start of April. The feeling was a little bit different, and the position on the bike was a bit different. The mechanics worked very well to give me a better feeling with the bike in that area. Overall, it was not a bad day. I felt okay and comfortable enough. I wanted to be a bit faster than I was, but this is the situation at the moment. I felt we did a good job. We made some good changes. Tomorrow we expect more. We will make more changes, and we expect to have the bike similar to how I had it at the test, which is a bit different and more experimental than those of the other guys. Overall, the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team worked great today, and we look forward to tomorrow.”
Results FP2
Pos | Rider | Team | Fastest lap |
1 | Fabio QUARTARARO | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | 1’59.317 |
2 | Jack MILLER | Ducati Lenovo Team | 1’59.829 |
3 | Jorge MARTIN | Pramac Racing | 1’59.939 |
4 | Pol ESPARGARO | Repsol Honda Team | 2’00.035 |
5 | Marc MARQUEZ | Repsol Honda Team | 2’00.051 |
6 | Francesco BAGNAIA | Ducati Lenovo Team | 2’00.102 |
7 | Aleix ESPARGARO | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 2’00.219 |
8 | Brad BINDER | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 2’00.315 |
9 | Alex RINS | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 2’00.392 |
10 | Valentino ROSSI | Petronas Yamaha SRT | 2’00.400 |
11 | Iker LECUONA | Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing | 2’00.413 |
12 | Enea BASTIANINI | Avintia Esponsorama | 2’00.548 |
13 | Joan MIR | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | 2’00.725 |
14 | Johann ZARCO | Pramac Racing | 2’00.810 |
15 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | LCR Honda IDEMITSU | 2’00.870 |
16 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | 2’00.882 |
17 | Luca MARINI | SKY VR46 Avintia | 2’01.058 |
18 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing | 2’01.405 |
19 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 2’01.412 |
20 | Alex MARQUEZ | LCR Honda CASTROL | 2’01.496 |
21 | Jake DIXON | Petronas Yamaha SRT | 2’02.601 |
22 | Lorenzo SAVADORI | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | 2’05.138 |
Source: motogp.com, yamaha-racing.com