Cal Crutchlow seeks to regroup in Misano

Cal Crutchlow insists he and his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 squad will need to regroup in Misano this weekend after a tough recent spell in the MotoGP world championship.

After coming within two seconds of ending Britain’s long premier class victory drought in Germany in mid-July, the last four races have fallen well below expectation for the Ducati-bound 27-year-old.

His close second place behind world championship leader Marc Marquez at the Sachsenring was the last time Crutchlow finished on the podium and he has now slipped 20-points behind Valentino Rossi in the race for fourth in the overall rankings.

Crutchlow was seventh in Laguna Seca and the unable to challenge for the podium in Indianapolis after he switched to a new fuel tank and seat unit designed to help is pace and feeling in the early laps.

He did bounce back with a second pole position of his career in Brno last month, only to crash out and finish 17th.

And huge expectations in front a home crowd at Silverstone recently came to nothing, as Crutchlow experienced a painful and frustrating weekend in the British Grand Prix.

Three massive crashes left him with a badly swollen right arm and battered confidence and he finished in a lowly seventh.

Eager to get his season back on track, Crutchlow heads to Misano concentrating on recapturing the form that saw him claim four podiums in five races earlier this season.

Crutchlow told MCN: “I can still challenge those top three but me and the whole team needs to regroup. We need to take a look at the reason why we have lost our way a little bit.

“My guys have been looking at data to get a fix on what’s been missing at the last couple of races. Brno showed I’ve still got the speed and that’s not the problem but recently we can’t get into that front group for some reason.

“In Indy we got a bit lost with the new tank and set the bike up wrong for the race. I thought in Brno we would make some headway with it and I lost some front-end feeling and then got to Silverstone and had lots of wheelie with both bikes even with both tanks.

“That’s not an excuse but with the tank, we’ve just lost our base setting and it is not easy to go back and do that because everybody is evolving and getting faster.”