Crutchlow 'toughs it out' on final day

Forced to halt testing early on day two due to arm injuries, Cal Crutchlow was back on track for a painful final day of MotoGP pre-season testing, in Qatar.

The Englishman was to receive little obvious reward for his efforts, being left just 18th on the timesheets.

"Today was very difficult because of the injuries I suffered in yesterday's crash," Crutchlow said.

"My arm is still very swollen and there is a big haematoma on the elbow. So to do 70 laps today, I’m not sure there are many others who would have been able to do that.

"My team worked really hard, as we all do, but then it’s down to me to tough it out and just get on with the job at hand. "

Crutchlow's priority was once again to help HRC understand the front-end problems that are hampering the 2020 RCV on corner entry.

The situation was so serious that Marc Marquez was given one of Takaaki Nakagami's 2019-spec bikes to compare with on the final day.

The reigning champion later hailed a 'great step' after being 'completely lost', adding that "Cal started to try some things we found and it looks like it was better also for him."

Exactly what was found remains unclear, but judging by the bodywork the latest aerodynamics are thought to have been one factor.

“Overall, we managed to get through a lot of things this evening, some positive and some negative," Crutchlow said. "We just need to keep working on those negatives by giving HRC all the feedback and information we’ve collected here, so that they can improve the bike for the first race next week.”

Nakagami was eighth fastest on last year's bike, just 0.090s behind the top Honda of Marc Marquez.