MotoGP Catalunya: Cal Crutchlow fastest in wet red flagged warm-up

Published on 03 Jun 2012 by Toni M.

cal crutchlow catalunya 2012

After two scorching hot days of practice and qualifying, this morning’s MotoGP warm-up practice at Catalunya as more or less expected took a turn for the worse and the session was declared wet. At first it just a smattering which then turned into a brief rain shower which made the track very slippery and highly treacherous as the riders went to scrub in their wet tires.

The slippery track first caught out James Ellison who crashed out on his sighting lap which caused the session to be red flagged to remove his ART bike. Hector Barbera almost lost the front his Pramac Ducati, but he managed to run off track and save his Ducati as did Valentino Rossi and Karel Abraham. Jorge Lorenzo also managed to stay up right, while Randy de Puniet suffered a crash as did Dani Pedrosa.

The fastest rider is this wasted twenty minute session ended up being Cal Crutchlow who went to the top of the timesheets in the dying minutes and posting a best lap of 2’00″239 and pipping today’s pole man Casey Stoner by just 0.044s.

Valentino Rossi took the third spot and he was half a second adrift and probably now burning an offering to some rain god in his motorhome. Alvaro Bautista was fourth followed by Jorge Lorenzo, Stefan Bradl, Dani Pedrosa, Yonny Hernandez, Danilo Petrucci and Ivan Silva closed out the top ten.

MotoGP Catalunya Warm-Up Results:

01- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – 2’00.239
02- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.044
03- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 0.497
04- Alvaro Bautista – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 0.506
05- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.544
06- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 0.648
07- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 1.123
08- Yonny Hernandez – Avintia Blusens – BQR MotoGP – + 1.227
09- Danilo Petrucci – CAME Iodaracing Project – Ioda TR003 – + 1.435
10- Ivan Silva – Avintia Blusens – BQR MotoGP – + 2.215
11- Michele Pirro – San Carlo Honda Gresini – FTR Honda – + 2.724
12- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 2.828
13- Andrea Dovizioso – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 3.165
14- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 3.582
15- Hector Barbera – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 4.011
16- Mattia Pasini – Speed Master Team – ART GP12 – + 4.093
17- Aleix Espargaro – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP12 – + 4.566
18- Randy De Puniet – Power Electronics Aspar – ART GP12 – + 4.844
19- Colin Edwards – NGM Mobile Forward Racing – Suter BMW – + 7.542
20- Karel Abraham – Cardion AB Motoracing – Ducati Desmosedici GP12 – + 23.825