COVENTRY’s Cal Crutchlow maintained his impressive form by making a positive impression during a two-day testing session at the new MotoGP venue in Austria.
Following on from last Sunday’s fantastic second place finish in Germany, which was Cruchlow’s first podium finish this season, the 30-year-old got to grips with the unfamiliar lay-out of the Spielberg circuit ahead of its first MotoGP world Championship showdown on August 14.
The LCR Honda rider put in a total of 86 laps across two days of action as he gathered valuable data not only for his own team, but also for Honda whose factory outfit were not present at the test.
Crutchlow, who decided to leave the session nearly two hours before the scheduled finish, was leading the standings for a large part of the afternoon after posting a fastest lap of 1:24.455.
That time was eclipsed towards the end of the day and Crutchlow eventually ended up in tenth position overall, with Ducati rider Andrea Iannone topping the timesheets.
“We are in good spirits coming here from the podium at the Sachsenring,” said Crutchlow.
“We’re happy enough with our progress during the course of the test. We got through everything we needed to test for Honda and also our team.
“We worked in a positive way and I was pleasantly surprised with the lap times we were posting and the time of day we were doing them.
“In the end we have to try and improve for the race weekend here, but we are satisfied at having covered everything we needed to.
“We’re set to have a few weeks off with the summer break now and I look forward to coming back to the Austria race in three weeks’ time.”
