Crutchlow: Marc's saves make us look like idiots!
Cal Crutchlow's Catalunya MotoGP qualifying came to a premature end when he fell from his LCR Honda through the quick Turn 13.
The Englishman escaped serious injury, but admitted such incidents are harder to take when world championship leader Marc Marquez makes so many saves on his RCV - although the Repsol Honda star has also fallen twice this weekend, in addition to Saturday's miracle save in final practice.
Cal Crutchlow's Catalunya MotoGP qualifying came to a premature end when he fell from his LCR Honda through the quick Turn 13.
The Englishman escaped serious injury, but admitted such incidents are harder to take when world championship leader Marc Marquez makes so many saves on his RCV - although the Repsol Honda star has also fallen twice this weekend, in addition to Saturday's miracle save in final practice.
"Yeah [I'm okay], I’m probably straightened out a little bit," said Crutchlow, who was left tenth on the grid. "The worst thing is that we have to deal with the situation of Marc saving them every week!
"It makes the rest of us on Hondas look like idiots. Imagine how many he has saved this year, compared to how many we have we crashed? He saves 15 a weekend."
Not the end to qualifying @calcrutchlow was hoping for #CatalanGP pic.twitter.com/MHpn41DGnD
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Commenting on the technique behind Marquez's saves, Crutchlow added: "The way he rides a bike is different to us.
"His elbow hits the ground when he is ready to crash, or he sticks his knee into the floor but most riders sit a lot more central on the bike and to try and teach yourself after 15 years to suddenly start leaning off like him [then] you don't do it.
"Your natural style is your natural style."
Crutchlow believes the best way to stop the front-end falls by the Honda riders is to improve rear grip.
"Honda knows the situation, they are probably the cleverest people in the paddock. So we need to continue to work.
"We have better speed this year, but our main problem is that the bike doesn't turn and we don't have great rear grip.
"But we have a bike that is amazing in braking, so we just take advantage of it all the time.
"And then evidently we crash on the brakes and in the middle of the corners, because we brake so deep and hard that we have overheated the front tyre and it doesn't hold out."
Marquez qualified second on the grid for Sunday's race, while Crutchlow will start as the next best Honda rider.
Dani Pedrosa qualified 11th, Takaaki Nakagami 12th, Franco Morbidelli 18th and Thomas Luthi 24th.
