With all the attention concentrated on Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa injuries, many forgot that Cal Crutchlow had suffered two huge crashes on Friday that left him nursing numerous cuts, bruises and friction burns and what he described on Saturday as his “worst day of the season.”
Crutchlow wasn’t even sure he would able to ride, but ride he did, to stunning second place - even if he admitted at the parc ferme that he felt like ’shit’.
The Briton is made of stern stuff - as he has demonstrated over and over again - and he bounced back from his injuries to take his fourth podium finish of the season and consolidate his 4th position in the standings, but just 31 points from new standings leader Marc Marquez.
“I am really happy to be on the podium again because it was a hard race in my physical condition,” said Crtuchlow. “The two crashes in practice took a lot out of me but I dug deep and it is great to get another podium for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team. I actually made a really good start but I had to roll off the throttle when Marc came towards me and that cost me a few places. The bike worked really well in the first few laps and I was able to fight my way through and I really enjoyed it.
“In the second half of the race the bike felt great and I was fast. I came on strong and pulled away from Valentino and I did absolutely everything I could to close down Marc. I couldn’t have done anything more but credit to him because he didn’t make a mistake, he controlled the gap to me very well and he deserved to win. I just kept on pushing and at the end second is another fantastic result. It is my fourth podium and I am not so far back in the Championship, so I can’t really ask for anything more. Now we go to Laguna trying to fight for another podium and hopefully that first win.”
Actually Crutchlow in an interview with Bikesportnews.com said, “In the first laps, me and Valentino struggled so much, we were out of the seat so many times. I’m saying we couldn’t get any heat in the tyre but we had no rear grip in the first ten laps and really struggled opening the gas.
So go figure which is the truth, but we did see both Yamaha riders suffer a few moments, and Crutchlow was all over the track in the first half of the race, while in the second half he was much smoother.
from TWOWHEELSBLOG
