Crutchlow: I know how big Jack's balls are!

Cal Crutchlow was quick to congratulate good friend Jack Miller on his first MotoGP pole position, in Argentina on Saturday.

The Pramac Ducati rider switched to slicks on the drying track and saved some huge moments before putting a clean final lap together to snatch pole by 0.177s from Dani Pedrosa.

"Jack is my friend, so I know how big his balls are and they are not massive!" smiled Crutchlow.

"But today they have just grown a big amount.

"You have to give him massive credit, he did a fantastic job." 

But the Englishman had little to smile about in terms of his own qualifying.

Like Miller, Crutchlow and world champion Marc Marquez had also swapped to their dry bike - but both aborted the move and rushed back to the pits for wet tyres in the closing stages of the 15-minute session.

Marquez went on to salvage sixth despite running wide, while Crutchlow paid a higher price for a similar error and was left down in tenth place (+2.2s).

"We took the decision as a team. I went out on the slick tyre and it wasn't the right decision because Jack was already out for an out-lap and then two laps before," Crutchlow explained.

"So in the end it was too late for us to do it. It was a waste of time.

"Then I had to push on the last lap [with wets] and make it count, but I didn't because I ran onto the water and lost two-seconds in two sectors. Those two seconds would have put me very well up there, second.

"I'm really disappointed to be tenth and it's going to make it a really difficult race tomorrow."

The outcome was all the more galling since Crutchlow came into qualifying having been second fastest in the dry on Friday, then third quickest in the fully wet final practice.

"We've had the pace to be in the top two all weekend and now we've made it very hard for ourselves," confirmed the LCR Honda rider.

"We're as fast as any factory rider I would say, except Marc.

"Now it depends on how he gets through the pack and how I get through the pack, if it's a dry race.

"But you could lose 3.5s on the first lap. These guys start like rockets. So we’re in trouble.

"And if conditions are like they were in qualifying, passing will be a massive risk and at this point in the season we can’t really afford to do that."