The first of three official pre-season testing sessions came to a close at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia today, as the whole MotoGP field and a variety of test riders began to draw their conclusions from three days of hard work.

For the LCR Honda Team and their British rider Cal Crutchlow it was a chance to help Honda evaluate the 2017 version of the RC213V, with still seven weeks to go before the start of the world championship in Qatar.

The final day of testing was a busy one for the squad, with Crutchlow completing a mammoth 71 laps of the sweltering 5.543km circuit. He clocked a best lap time of 1’59.728, the eighth fastest lap of the day, and the ninth fastest time of the three-day test.

The LCR Honda Team now pack up their equipment in Malaysia to prepare for the next three-day official test at the Phillip Island circuit in Australia in two weeks’ time. 

#35 Cal Crutchlow – 9th (1’59.728 lap 67 of 71)

“We had a positive day today with the bike, and we are still evaluating the different engine configurations for Honda. We worked hard and worked well as a team again. I do believe we could have picked up a little bit more in terms of lap time in some areas, but this was just a slight problem we had and we are happy enough with what has been a positive outcome during the test.”

“There is still a lot of work to be done, but we know that Honda will be going back to the factory with everything that has been fed back to them at this test. They work very hard for us all and when we get back onto the track hopefully that means will have another good test in Australia.”