MOTORSPORT: IT WAS a bitter end for Coventry’s Cal Crutchlow after he crashed out of Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix while sitting in fifth position during a rain soaked grand prix in Sepang.
Heavy downpours before the start of the race delayed the go-ahead and reduced the race distance to 19 laps.
When the riders finally got away the track was still sodden and proved to be treacherous for Crutchlow, who had made good progress in the early laps.
The LCR Honda team rider was in fourth at one staged and was closing in on the leaders as he was passed by Honda colleague Marc Marquez.
Crutchlow kept in touch with the world champion but his hopes of placing on the podium again were dashed when he hit the ground on turn two with eight laps remaining.
“I’m a little bit sore after what was a big crash,” said Crutchlow, who was the winner of the Australian GP seven days. “It wasn’t fast, in fact it was quite slow but I high-sided off throttle.
“Marc almost had the same the lap before but he managed to stay on – he had the luck of landing back on the bike.
“I thought ‘don’t do what Marc did’, but I nearly ended up on the moon!
“I landed completely on my face and was a bit disorientated, but then was OK. I have some pain in my big toe and my foot, and in my hand which is broken from the qualifying crash. It was impossible to ride the bike again.
“It was a shame because it was a definite podium opportunity, but I was struggling with the acceleration.
“We need how to improve the traction control works because we just weren’t competitive enough in this area, and myself and Marc had to brake ‘hot’ all the time to make up for this.
“I tried my best and it didn’t work this time, but I’m most disappointed for my team because to spend the week here and get any points is a real shame. We go away happy enough because of recent results but we had to try today, and we did.”
19th Apr, 2024
