Three-time MotoGP race winner Crutchlow makes an unexpected outing at Silverstone in 2021 as a temporary replacement for the exiled Maverick Vinales in the Yamaha factory team, who was originally supposed to replace the injured Franco Morbidelli at Petronas SRT.
The Briton, who retired at the end of 2020 and achieved the Austria one-two on the M1 in 2019, came 13th in qualifying at the end of practice, but could not be better than 19th in Q1.
Crutchlow says his problems stemmed from instability issues with his Yamaha, but he still believes that based on his experience on the track, he could have been much closer to a Q2 spot.
“Not good, qualifying was just a disaster,” said Crutchlow of what was likely his last British GP qualifying.
“I don’t feel good on my bike. The bike is very good, I just don’t feel comfortable with it at the moment.
“The bike is just so unstable for me at the moment, it wobbles like crazy and I can’t stop the bike on the straights either.
“It’s quite normal on the front straight because you come out of a corner. But on the two back straights it shouldn’t wobble the way it is, so we really have to look at that.
“But the problem is, when it wobbles, I have no brakes because it shakes the brake pads back.”
Also read:
He added that his best lap was canceled due to a yellow flag, undoing a possible run in the second quarter – although Crutchlow admitted his chances of making the final session were slim.
“I could potentially have been close to Q2,” he said. “I don’t think I would have made it to Q2, but I would have been close.
“But I drive well, FP3 was good, FP4 was ok, but we have to understand some things. Sure, some of that I ride, but some of his attitude on the bike.
“We know that the bike works well for Fabio [Quartararo], it’s a great bike and a great team. But I was disappointed to be on the back row, there is no doubt about that.
“There are no expectations of me, but the expectation of myself is that I know how to drive around here and I should have been faster than I was.
“But in qualifying I drove absolutely free of brakes in Turn 2 and Turn 3, I had no brakes at all and just had to tip over. So I puffed the whole lap because the motorcycle wobbled. “