15/10/2011

Crutchlow at the top of Lukey Heights in qualifying today

A host of setup changes overnight failed to aid Monster Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow in his search for grip at a bumpy Phillip Island in MotoGP qualifying today and the former World Supersport Champion slumped to a disappointing 14th on the grid.

The Coventry man spend a good deal of last night poring over data and making alterations to the front and rear geometry of his YZR-M1 to try and soak up the ripples at the Australian track but he had no luck and will start from the fifth row.

“There is not much to say other than I am very disappointed because I expected to be competing for a place inside the top 10 here and it has been a struggle to find a good setup with the bike. We spent a long time analysing the data last night because yesterday I didn't have good front or rear grip and turning was also an issue," said Crutchlow.

"We made a lot of changes to the bike today and to be honest we didn't find any improvement and I've got the same issues. The track is really bumpy and I can't get the bike to absorb them smoothly and we just don't have the grip we need to go faster. We've tried a lot of things to make it better but for some reason nothing seems to be working.

"I went just as fast with a set of tyres that had 30 laps on them as I did with two brand new tyres, so we need to sit down again tonight and work through the data and see if there is something we can improve for the race.”