STEPS FORWARD FOR LCR HONDA IN QATAR

The first qualifying session of the 2016 MotoGP World Championship saw LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow qualify in a creditable tenth place on the grid, after having found the going tough throughout the week in Qatar so far.
It was a considerable turnaround in fortunes, with front-end issues plaguing the British rider ever since the first practice on Thursday. In his customary gritty manner Crutchlow first made progress through the preliminary qualifying practice, with a stunning 1’55.291 putting him top of the timesheets.
The 30 year-old was unfortunately unable to better that time in the final qualifying quarter-hour, with traffic problems holding him up on his fastest lap, but Crutchlow still put the bike onto the fourth row of the grid in tenth with a 1’55.352. Hopes still remain high of a good finish for the sole LCR Honda campaigner in Sunday’s season-opening race.

#35 Cal Crutchlow – 10th (1’55.352)
“We found a little something today, but we didn’t really change too much on the bike. I just had to compensate a lot for everything that’s happening with the engine-braking on the bike. I just tried to ride in a completely different way – not because of the tyres, because my riding style of carrying a lot of corner speed suits them – but I had to change a lot because we can’t really use the rear brake at the moment.”
“There’s something really wrong with the engine-braking control system that we can’t fix here. The factory team have been able to do something, but we will hopefully be able to in a few races time.”
“We’re happy enough today, although not too much with the qualifying because we could easily have been further up but I got held up. I believe I could have easily done a 1’54 and been on the front two rows, so I’m disappointed for that, but overall it was a lot better day than yesterday. My pace for the race i


s not too bad and I think we can run a good race tomorrow if we get away well.”