The first day of practice at the Japanese Grand Prix saw Cal Crutchlow end the day as the fifth fastest rider overall, continuing his excellent run of form from the recent rounds.

At the Honda-owned Twin Ring Motegi the LCR Honda man was inside the top positions for much of the day, consistently improving his lap times throughout, and eventually stopping the clock in a best time of 1’45.501. That put the Brit a couple of tenths behind lead Honda man Marc Marquez, and just 0.35 off fastest rider of the day Jorge Lorenzo.

Crutchlow had earlier finished the morning session in a solid eighth place, with a late slide off coming after the chequered flag had been shown, thankfully with no lasting damage.


#35 Cal Crutchlow – 5th (1’45.501)

“It wasn’t a bad day today, even if I feel a little bit tired, but overall I am generally quite happy with how the bike is working. There is still room for lots of improvement though - there are a couple of areas around the circuit where we are struggling a little, but we are quite happy.”

“We tried some different settings on the bike and perhaps wasted a bit of time in the two sessions, but they had been part of the plan before the weekend began. We’re continuing to look at the data for tomorrow, and hopefully we are able to take some more steps forward.”