LCR Honda Castrol rider Cal Crutchlow was unable to make the progress he was hoping for on day one of the final pre-season MotoGP test session in Qatar. The Briton was amongst the top performers throughout the previous test at Sepang a fortnight ago, but couldn’t rediscover that rhythm at the Losail International Circuit on Saturday.

Although unperturbed by his early struggles in Doha, Crutchlow is determined to improve over the next two days as he finetunes his preparations for the opening race of the season at the same venue. The 34-year-old was 19th fastest overall – posting a best time of 1’55.757 - as he clocked up a total of 50 laps during a busy opening session.


#35 Cal Crutchlow – 19th - (1’55.757 – lap 31 of 50)

“Today was another long testing schedule, we didn’t have so many parts to test today, but we had some things we needed to try with electronics to try and improve the stopping of the bike and the corner entry. I don’t think we improved that much today and judging by the lap time and pace we need to improve for tomorrow, the next day and also the race weekend. But we’re trying our best and we’ll have a look tonight with all the engineers from my team and HRC to improve the feeling for me to be able to go faster tomorrow.”