Some positives, some negatives for Crutchlow

Brit takes top five as top Independent Team rider on Day 1

Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) ended Day 1 of the Phillip Island test in the top five in P5, as the Brit returns to the venue of his stunning second victory of 2016. Putting in 61 laps and going quickest on his final push, the LCR Honda rider posted a best of 1:30.065.

Working on with the new specification engine from Honda and going in a different direction to the Repsol Honda Team to get a good comparison, Crutchlow sees positives and negatives – but still feels confident in his pace around Phillip Island.

CC35, P5: “It wasn’t too bad a day’s testing today. We had a lot of small things that we needed to fix on the bike, and that meant lots of short runs in and out of the pit complex, which cost us a bit of time, but overall I’m pleased with our pace.”

“We are using the newer spec engine again in Australia, and it is taking a little bit of getting used to for all the riders at the moment, but we are happy with Honda’s work and I’m happy with the way the team worked today. It’s the same engine configuration we were testing in Malaysia, and we have found some positive things and some negative things. Obviously we’re trying to keep the positives whilst working on the negatives. At the moment that’s proving a difficult balance because we are trying different things to the factory team – they are trying one programme and we are trying another and maybe we will be able to help each other out in that way.

“We now have another two days of testing left, where we hope we can improve the package we have even further. We had some more things we wanted to try today but didn’t manage to get done, however I felt good riding the bike and felt at ease. We know what the team and I are capable of doing around this circuit, and I feel that if we had the race again tomorrow we would be in a similar position. I’m happy with that, but we still need to work hard because I still think we can have a better feeling with this bike.”