Jerez MotoGP: Cal Crutchlow thrilled with top ten

Cal Crutchlow will start his second MotoGP race in Jerez tomorrow from ninth position on the grid after another impressive qualifying performance earlier today.

The British rider, who qualified eighth on his MotoGP debut last month in Qatar, finished today’s session with a best time of 1.40.019 to finish just 0.124s behind Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team-mate Colin Edwards.

The 2009 World Supersport champion was just over 0.5s behind Marco Simoncelli’s factory Honda in fifth place as he carried on the fast form he displayed in this morning’s final practice session.

Crutchlow was seventh fastest this morning and outpaced Edwards and factory Yamaha rider Ben Spies.

He was always a threat for the top ten in qualifying and for the second race in a row, he will start higher up the grid than a host of big names, including nine-times world champion Valentino Rossi, who was left languishing down in 12th after a crash at Turn 8.

The 25-year-old, who had only ever seen the Jerez circuit on TV prior to the first practice session yesterday, said: “I’m really happy considering I don’t know this track at all and there are a lot of talented riders behind me on the grid again.

“This morning I was seventh and I’ve qualified ninth, so I’m obviously making big progress. My ideal time was sixth, so I can’t complain about that given my lack of experience on this track. I actually felt more comfortable with the harder tyre than I did with the soft, so that bodes well for the race tomorrow.

“We definitely made a big improvement with the front-end of the bike and I felt much more comfortable today. But we sacrificed a bit of rear grip, so we’ve got to try and find a balance that gives me the grip I’ve got now with the front, but improves the rear feeling too.

“My target for the race will be to finish in the top ten. Looking at the lap times I’m similar to (Nicky) Hayden and (Hiroshi) Aoyama again like I was in Qatar.

“I was a little bit behind them at the end of the race in Qatar, so hopefully I can make that step and give them a closer battle here. My confidence is growing and I’m optimistic I can get a good result tomorrow.”