Crutchlow: “I had some flashbacks from 2014!”

Phillip Island winner talks escaping past mistakes and win number 2

Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) took a stunning second career victory in the Australian GP, after having lost a podium at the track in 2014 under similar circumstances – back then following race leader Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) into the gravel. In 2016 however, it was only Marquez who repeated the error, braking too deep into Turn 4 and folding the front – leaving Crutchlow to keep his stunning race pace up and take career victory number two; a chasing Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) unable to catch the Brit.

Cal Crutchlow (P1): “I’m really pleased to come here and race in the conditions we raced in. It was about keeping your head throughout the weekend, and we know some of the conditions were dangerous. My pace here was better than in other years, and I was pleased to be able to take advantage when I needed to take advantage. I need to thank my team for all their work this weekend and also Honda, because they help us a lot internally. I’m disappointed my two girls aren’t here today but they’re already on the flight to Malaysia – so when they land they’ll see that I’ve won!

“If Marc had crashed in turn 6 I would have thought nothing of it, but I crashed there two years ago with a big gap. So I spent the rest of the race thinking it was a disaster. I pushed in the laps when the sun wasn’t out, because I knew I had to keep the heat in the front tyres. I was in a good rhythm. I saw the pit board said 1.2 to Vale and I thought “please he’s not coming from 15th…” Then it started to go up and honestly then you don’t know what to do because you want to continue to push. But I had some flashbacks from a couple of years ago, there’s no doubt about that.

“I’m in a good moment in my career, and it seems to be getting even better. I targeted a few races this year – and here was one I wanted to win. I’ve had a really really good year. I told some people in this room I wanted to come here and win and I don’t think they believed me. It’s nice to win in the wet and now in the dry – because people think if you win in the wet that you can only win in the rain.”