LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow will start the German Grand Prix from fourth place on the grid after a fine performance in qualifying at a soaking wet Sachsenring. The Briton narrowly missed out on a spot on the front row, but will now be targeting a place on the podium in Sunday’s race after making a big leap forwards from his overnight position of 13th.

Crutchlow made rapid improvements during FP3 and FP4 to ensure he went straight through to Q2 which took place on a drying track. In the end he finished just over a tenth behind Dani Pedrosa in third, while the Spaniard’s HRC factory team-mate Marc Marquez took pole for the eighth straight year in Germany.


#35 Cal Crutchlow - (4th – 1’28.089)

“I’m a little frustrated as I made a couple of mistakes in the last sector, but the tyres were destroyed and had too much heat in them and when I went back to the wet I was not turning the bike too well and lost two and half tenths just on the exit to the last corner. But I’m happy to be in the top four and it gives us a chance to get away with them tomorrow and battle.

“I’m not too disappointed, yesterday I was 13th with the dodgy conditions and I said I was going to give everything to make sure I didn’t have to go to the Q1. I’d like to make it a Honda 1-2-3 tomorrow, but Dani Pedrosa is like a rocket round here. We’ll have to see what we can do in the early part of the race, try to get away with them and then just do our job.”