LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow qualified on the third row for Sunday’s Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas after a frustrating qualifying session. Conditions on Saturday proved much more testing at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin with cold weather ensuring the riders struggled to improve on their efforts from Friday.

Crutchlow performed well in the morning’s free practice sessions and went through to Q2 with the fifth fastest time in the field. However, the Briton could not capitalise and saw his hopes of a spot amongst the frontrunners quashed when he came off his RC213V when on a quick lap. That left him down in ninth spot on the grid, although the 31-year-old remains hopeful he can still challenge during Sunday’s main event.

Crutchlow’s fellow Honda rider Marc Marquez claimed his fifth consecutive pole in Texas, with championship leader Maverick Viñales just behind him.


#35 Cal Crutchlow – 9th (2’04.661)

“I’m disappointed to be ninth on the grid for tomorrow when I thought the front row was possible, especially the lap I was on. But unfortunately we’ve been having a lot of vibration in the first-gear corners all weekend and I made a mistake and went down which was disappointing, because it would have been a good lap from the time I was setting.

“But we have to start from scratch tomorrow and try to make a good job. My team has been working very hard and I feel confident for the race, definitely. We either have to go hard from the start and be aggressive or be patient and play the long race - at the moment we don’t really know from the tyre selection what we’ll do, but I’m hopeful of getting into a good position.”