Night delight for Cal Crutchlow

Cal Crutchlow made an impressive debut under the Losail International Circuit floodlights, the British rider finishing 16th quickest on the opening night of MotoGP testing in Qatar.

The Coventry rider’s lowly position certainly didn’t do justice to an encouraging performance as he finished just 1.466s away from Dani Pedrosa in first experience of riding at night.

Just over 0.6s put the 2009 World Supersport champion away from the top ten and the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider declared himself satisfied with his performance.

Crutchlow said he had found riding under the spectacular Losail International Circuit floodlights a relatively easy experience, though it wasn’t without its pitfalls.

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He told MCN: “I didn’t really feel a difference. The only bad thing is you see your shadow ten times going into the same corner, so you think somebody is passing you.

“The amount of times I sat up going into Turn 1 because you go by a light and the shadow goes and then you go by another and you think ten people are going to fly by.”

Crutchlow comfortably reduced the gap between himself and the leading bunch last night after two tough tests at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia.

He’s often been two seconds away from the best pace in the Far East but was less than a second away from vastly experienced team-mate Colin Edwards last night.
He added: “I’m not that far away. I’m only 1.4s behind Pedrosa on a lap that’s not far off two minutes.

“That’s not too bad at all and to be close to the top ten is okay. Considering I wasn’t here last year even in World Superbikes, I’m happy enough.”

Crutchlow admitted his biggest weakness at present is still getting a grasp on the braking technique required in MotoGP.

He’s getting better but is still giving up most of his time in the short braking zone.
He said: “Braking is getting better but it is still all about loading the tyres. Corner entry is where I’m losing time.

“It’s not even braking where I’m losing; it is actually releasing the brake. Colin seems to take one second on a lap and that’s just me releasing the brake after him. 

” stop in the same place with the same speed but I hold the brake on too long but that will come when I’m more comfortable with the bike, so I can release it and go round the corner better.”

Another issue for Crutchlow last night was the niggling pain from his recovering left shoulder. Crutchlow is recovering from identical tendon and ligament damage that badly hampered Valentino Rossi in 2010 and the fast changes of direction and hard braking points in Qatar were not helping Crutchlow’s comfort level.

He said: “My shoulder is really sore at the minute. I thought it would be better than this by now, but I go from doing relatively nothing in the week to coming and riding these bikes doing 200mph down to 40mph and it hurts.

“It is sore in the back and the front and swollen and it becomes hard work to change direction with the bike.”