“A bit of magic” - Cal Crutchlow “fastest I've been around Silverstone”
Cal Crutchlow impressed by MotoGP’s record Silverstone pace after producing a bit of home-track magic of his own.
Cal Crutchlow pulled out a bit of Silverstone magic to feature as high as 14th during the middle stages of Friday afternoon practice for the 2026 British MotoGP.
Riding a decade on from his home podium, the 40-year-old replacement rider was eventually pushed back to 20th.
But the LCR Honda rider’s 1m 58.190s lap still put him ahead of Pol Espargaro, Toprak Razgatlioglu and Augusto Fernandez.
“I feel like a passenger!” Crutchlow began. “The biggest problem is I've been nearly a month off. So, suffering a little bit with arm pump. But the more I ride this weekend, it'll either get better or worse.
“I feel alright. Tried to keep a little bit of magic, again. Fastest I've ever been around Silverstone, so I can't ask for anything else.
“If I get off and I'm happy that I've done a good job, and today I am, then that's all I can say.
“But it's a hard circuit here, when you've had five years off.
“When I went out this morning, I thought, ‘This place never used to be this fast, surely’.
“These fast changes of directions, if you miss one of them, you're screwed for five of them. But overall, I felt okay.”
On a day when eight riders went under the old lap record, Crutchlow admitted:
“I'm asking the same question: why the f**k are they going so fast?
“I wish I had maybe come back a couple of years ago, my lap time would have been right there then!
“But it's not demoralising, because I look and think, I'm eight tenths from the top ten. It's not that bad.
“It's just the front guys are going really fast, and all credit to them. To go around here at that speed is impressive.
“But this has been the same as every other track, I remember Brno was the same, ridiculous lap time.
“As I said, I felt okay. Need to improve in some areas, but I'm not expecting a miracle.
“I expect to hopefully be able to battle a little bit again tomorrow and Sunday.”
Silverstone is Crutchlow’s sixth event, replacing the injured Johann Zarco.
LCR team-mate Diogo Moreira was 15th fastest.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
