Qatar MotoGP: Cal Crutchlow faster than Rossi

Cal Crutchlow produced arguably the performance of the night in Qatar this evening when he qualified in eighth position for his MotoGP debut.

The British rider shrugged off the non-stop pain from a nasty left hand injury picked up during the Qatar night test earlier this week to finish less than 0.5s away from the top six.

The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider will start in front of nine-times world champion Valentino Rossi and experienced team-mate Colin Edwards after he logged a best time of 1.55.578.

That was 0.059s faster than factory Ducati rider Rossi as Crutchlow lapped 2.2s faster than he managed in the test earlier this week.

The Coventry rider was understandably jubilant with his morale-boosting performance but he was keeping his feet firmly on the ground ahead of his premier class debut in tomorrow’s night’s 22-lap race at the Losail International Circuit.

The 2009 World Supersport champion said: “It feels great to have qualified eighth when you look at the calibre and record of some of the guys behind me, but I’m not going to be getting ahead of myself.

“It is just a shame it is not the four-rider per row formation because that would be a second row! But to be on the third row, I’m happy enough. A qualifying session like that is not like Superpole in World Superbikes at all. I’m normally used to the intense pressure and being hyped up for one lap, so to build up your pace for an hour felt a bit strange.

“But I’m really happy and my fastest lap wasn’t a perfect one. I made a couple of mistakes but I think that’s because I’m having a small issue with the front-end in the fast corners.

“But I still managed a 55.5 and I never would have imagined doing that pace a few days ago at the test when I was doing high 57s. I’m not going to make a prediction for the race.

“I’d be happy to get a few points and have a strong race. It will be tough to finish where I’ve qualified but with the help of my Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew, it has been a really positive weekend so far.”