Lottery of Misano leaves Cal frustrated

The “lottery” of Misano left Cal Crutchlow finishing 11th after one of the most incredible races in MotoGP history. With the majority of the field making two bike changes in the flag to flag race Crutchlow missed the optimum window to pit on both occasions and ended the day with only five points to show despite running in the top five at one point. 

“I’m not too happy with the finishing position,” said Crutchlow. “It was a lottery, a complete lottery. I pitted when Dovi did, I knew he was fast in the dry and fast in the rain. At one point I was the second fastest guy on track in the rain so we knew our pace in the wet was good. If it had have rained again I would have benefited and maybe we would have been on the podium.

“It’s a little bit luck of the draw. I came in on the same lap as either Vale or Jorge but it was four laps too late. We lost about 11 seconds a lap at one point. If you’re losing that in three or four laps it’s difficult to recover. When it rained, I felt good but when I changed to my last bike I didn’t have a good feeling at all. I had a used rear tyre in from yesterday so it had been through a cycle. Most of the other guys that passed me took a new tyre or kept the one from the start of the race.”

The flag to flag races always provide a unique challenge to riders as they decide when to stop and change bikes. All the riders are given signals on their pit boards of when to stop but ultimately it’s up to the riders to decide when to come into the pits. After the race Crutchlow admitted that his roll of the dice didn’t work out.

“But we’re in control of when we come in. I had a pit board telling me when to come in but I did so when Dovi came in. Whatever happens he’s always strong in the rain and this weekend he would have been in the top five had it stayed dry. It was a disappointing final position but it could have been a hell of a lot better if we pitted earlier. It could have been a hell of a lot worse, it was a lottery.”

San Marino was a difficult weekend for Crutchlow with the LCR Honda rider having to take part in Q1 during qualifying. After the race the Englishman said that “We need to go to Aragon, go back to the real base setting of the bike and go from there. This weekend we’ve played around quite a lot, we had nothing to lose. Some things worked, others didn’t.”