MOTORSPORT: IT WAS a satisfactory end to testing for Coventry’s Cal Crutchlow as the 2017 MotoGP World Championship season edges ever closer.
Crutchlow and his LCR Honda team put the RC213V bike through its paces at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar on Sunday as part of a busy final day of testing.
The completion of Sunday’s session marked the end of official preparation for the new term which gets underway at the same venue in two weeks’ time.
Crutchlow completed a total of 70 laps on day three, securing plenty of valuable time in the saddle ahead of the forthcoming campaign.
He posted the eighth fastest time of the day, which saw him finish the test ninth in the combined standings – above reigning world champion Marc Marquez who ended in 11th place overall.
The impressive Maverick Vinales again topped the timesheets, as he did during every session of the three days. However, with less than 1.3 seconds covering the top 18 riders in the final standings, 2017 promises to be a fascinating season in the premier class.
“It was a positive day,” said Crutchlow. “We are happy with what we managed to get through. We worked well as a team again and completed the plan that we had set ourselves.
“We managed to do a 16-lap long run, unfortunately during that I made a small mistake with the buttons on the handlebar, but we were quite happy overall.
“The final lap time was not very good and I pushed for a lap time on the final lap, but I crashed as we had a malfunction with a part that we think was damaged yesterday.
“But this is racing and now we look forward to the first round which is very close and hopefully all the fans do too.”
The 2017 MotoGP World Championship season gets underway on March 26 with the Grand Prix of Qatar at the fabulous Losail International Circuit, which lies on the outskirts of Doha.
