Jet lagged Crutchlow fastest, ‘made a step’

Not even a severe case of jet lag could diminish Cal Crutchlow’s speed while testing in Thailand, as the Englishman built on his fine showing at Sepang in late January to top Friday’s MotoGP timesheets at the Chang International Circuit in Buriram.

The Englishman revealed his sleep was limited to a handful of hours on Friday morning, such were the aftereffects of traveling from Europe to South East Asia and adjusting to the local time zone.

Aside from feeling dazed early in the day, and a small slip off at the track’s tricky final bend that followed, Crutchlow confirmed the speed he showed at the first test of 2018 in Malaysia, by bettering Marc Marquez’s early marker to lead Alex Rins at the close of Friday by a narrow 0.033s.

The 32-year old revealed his own riding improvements, coupled with a definite improvement from Honda’s 2018 engine – of which Crutchlow has two (the same as what he tested at Sepang) – was behind his early preseason speed. “Last year we were lacking something," he said on Friday evening. "Now we have it."

“I had not too bad a day considering we’ve never been to this circuit before. Only a couple of the guys have. Obviously we’ve continued to ride well from Malaysia. I felt good there. HRC is doing a good job.

“I feel last year we were lacking something and now we have it. We’re still having similar problems with the bike and the way it handles, but we have something that is really helping us here. I’m pleased with the way the team is working so far.

“I never suffer from jet lag but last night I went to bed at 5am and work up at half seven. I didn’t feel very well to start with. I was not physically affected at all, but I just wanted to sleep.”

On the small crash he suffered in the morning, Crutchlow continued, “It’s obviously early days in the preseason, but I feel at the moment I’ve made a step riding-wise and Honda has definitely made a step with the bike in a good way.

“We’ve worked well in every day so far. Yeah, I crashed at turn twelve but I wasn’t concentrating that well. I had only just woken up by then! I was already on the fastest time of the day on that lap.

“There are some bumps on the last corner and it caused some chatter and I went down. I think about five laps later another four guys went down. It’s a really tricky corner but this is why we’re here to test.”

So does he feel that, along with his own riding improvements, the engine is responsible for his current speed?

“They’ve definitely improved the engine of our bike,” Crutchlow said. “The acceleration? I don’t know. We have to look at Malaysia and compare data a lot more. Them sort of corners like turn one and the last corner really don’t suit my style.

“So to be quite strong in sector one, maybe I’ve adapted my style a bit to help that as well – like being patient probably. We got the new Honda engine but we need to work on the rest of the bike.

“The team are working well and Honda has really started working well. I think they listened a lot to what we requested from the end of last year and it seems that we have something a lot better now. Essentially, a lot of the bike is the same and we’re struggling with the same stuff we were struggling with last year.

“I don’t think we just gained with the engine. That’s not where we just gained, sure, because we’re gaining on the braking and in the corner speed. But we have some more power and it definitely helps. We still need to make the bike a little more ride-able.”

The Englishman was speaking just before the MotoGP riders were scheduled to meet in the Safety Commission to discuss the Buriram track, and areas in which it can be improved ahead of October’s inaugural Thailand Grand Prix.

In Crutchlow’s eyes, the surface was bumpier than he had envisioned, while the placing of both the entry to pit-lane and pit-lane exit is far from ideal.

“It’s a little bumpier than what I expected and even in a straight line it’s bumpy. Safety wise, the pit exit ain’t great. Pit entry ain’t great. But what can they do? I think they have enough time to change that, but they’re not going to build a tunnel under the track, are they?

“In the end, if someone goes down at the first corner you’re going to hit one of the guys coming out of pit lane, simple as that,” he said. “I race motorcycles for a living. No one wants to see anyone injured, but we’ll try and improve it for sure.”