Crutchlow: “If it was Sunday we would have been there"

Top four on Day 1 despite some issues for two-time GP winner

Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) showed good pace in the wet and mixed conditions that greeted the grid on Day 1 at the French GP, and the Brit ended the day fourth overall from his time set in a drier FP1.

FP2 saw some difficulties keep Crutchlow from the top ten, but the rider from Coventry is sure he’d be competitive had it been race day – and weather looks set to change for much of the rest of the weekend.

Cal Crutchlow, P4: “"This morning was not bad, but I didn’t take any risks as these kind of days can really wreck your season. If you make a small mistake you can pay a heavy price when really it doesn’t mean so much to final outcome of the weekend, especially when we think Sunday is going to be dry.

Cold hand today in France …

A post shared by Cal Crutchlow (@calcrutchlow) on

“I always seem I have good pace in the mixed conditions and in the wet, but this afternoon I had a really bad feeling with the tyre and my feeling with the bike overall was not great. We are 1.6 seconds off at the moment, but I had such a bad feeling with the bike, and a few small problems, that I think it’s easy to say we could have been very competitive if we needed to be. If it was a Sunday race we would have been there for sure.”