British rookie Cal Crutchlow continued his impressive maiden season in MotoGP with an 8th place finish in Estoril at the live moto gp race in Portugal on Sunday – and turned even more heads as he slashed more than two seconds off his best race lap in the post-race test at the Estoril circuit on Monday.
The Englishman outpaced the likes of Valentino Rossi and Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team-mate Colin Edwards as he set a blistering time in the 1.36’s to put his best testing lap ahead of Dani Pedrosa’s quickest lap in Sunday’s race, which he went on to win.
The 4th place finish, with only Marco Simoncelli, Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner quicker than him, left the youngster brimming with confidence, and he insisted that his pace in testing bodes well for the future.
“I honestly didn’t expect to break into the 36s but I felt comfortable and even with 25-laps on the same set of tyres I was doing low to mid-37s,” he said.
“I know everyone goes faster in a test but my time today was faster than Dani Pedrosa’s best lap in the race and he won, so my pace bodes well for the future.” He added.
After securing his best ever MotoGP finish in Portugal, Crutchlow revealed that he was unable to use the updates he tested on Monday in the race because of the unpredictable weather that affected the race weekend.
“Losing so much track time because of the weather at the weekend meant I couldn’t risk taking a gamble on making too many changes for the race,” he commented.