“I believed with the track conditions the hard front would be OK”.
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“Now we’ll try to work with the physio to be 100 percent but it will not be a problem”. We took the gamble after I had spoken to Michelin on the grid and I said listen I’m going to go with the hard/hard and they said they thought it was the right choice.
As he took to the track for the start of the qualifying he sat back and watched as Lorenzo went out and blitzed his own record, taking the provisional pole. Nobody else did, I don’t know if anybody else did on the grid, but as far as I’m concerned they’re all wimps.
The battle for the remaining podium places was an enthralling encounter which saw many riders change places throughout the race.
“Last year we dominated the race and I hope to have good feelings there again this time round”. Gradually I gathered pace and was able to manage the race when other riders lost tyre performance.
Crutchlow finished the race strong – and crossed the chequered flag over seven seconds ahead of Rossi, while Marquez crossed two seconds later.
11th Yonny Hernández: “The positive thing about today is that we finished the race and we picked up nearly twice the amount of points that we had in the overall standings”.
As the race started the rain did appear to stop, and a dry line did slowly start to form.
On the first lap it was Marquez leading the Ducati pair of Dovizioso and Iannone.
Unlike most riders who started on soft tyres, Crutchlow opted for hard ones and that strategy paid off.
It proved the wrong decision on the day, with the “Spartan” losing points to Marquez in the championship, and teammate Rossi.
“It was very bad luck, with this tyre we couldn’t finish the race, like Dovizioso and Iannone”. The Italian also chose the hard rear, and suffered in the early stages, but paired it with the soft front. All in all, the SBK rider didn’t do too badly on his first outing with the M1, completing just 15 laps and setting a time that left him a little over 4 seconds behind Lorenzo. Marquez then chased down Barber and Iannone, and moved up to third.
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Lorenzo pitted and inexplicably went to his bike with slicks, in spite of the advice of his team. Championship leader Brad Binder (KTM) crashed out of the lead with four laps to go, before Khairul Idham Pawi (Honda) also ended up in the gravel in a dramatic change for the race in the final few laps.
