Crutchlow ‘better than I thought’ in treacherous wet conditions

Cal Crutchlow feels the wet conditions during the second free practice session were worthy of stopping track running but still felt he had the pace in case the heavy rain returns for this weekend in Austria.

With the forecasted heavy rain for Friday afternoon arriving exactly as MotoGP’s FP2 started, the session was delayed by 15 minutes before being given the green light to run which provided the grid with its first genuine wet weather running at the Red Bull Ring since its return to the calendar two years ago.

Crutchlow felt some of the conditions were not safe to run but was able to find a ‘comfortable and confident’ approach in the rain in preparation for this weekend.

The forecast remains uncertain for tomorrow with rain expected to return and there is a slightly better outlook for race day.

“It was better than I thought but at a couple of corners it was a lot more slippery than at other corners,” Crutchlow said. “You were able to push in some corners but not in the others.

“To find that limit it was quite difficult but I felt comfortable and confident. I felt I could have gone really fast if I needed to, I just didn’t want to take any risks because I didn’t need to take any risks. It was about how you disperse the water.

“Marc [Marquez] rides very well in the rain last year and again it seems like he is riding very well in the rain this year. He doesn’t disperse the water very well because he is quite light but the big heavier guys just push the water very well. That’s what you need around a track which is in as deep water as it was today.”

While Crutchlow doesn’t feel a significant set-up improvement was discovered during the wet FP2 it did provide the chance to gain vital data in the rain for his LCR Honda squad to use ahead of this weekend.

“In case it rains tomorrow and you have to go out,” he said. “So to get a bit of a setting and some electronics information as well. We have the information for tomorrow as it looks like qualifying could also be wet unfortunately.”

Crutchlow ended Friday’s combined free practice times seventh overall, while in the wet FP2 he was ninth fastest, 2.2s off Marquez, but without pushing for an outright quick time.