Cal Crutchlow’s learning curve on the Yamaha M1, took a step backwards during the final night of testing at the Losail race circuit.

The Tech3 rider was one of the numerous riders who crashed and the only one who picked up a painful injury that could hamper his rookie MotoGP debut. Following a heavy crash at turn 10, his left hand got trapped under the handlebar of his M1 and the incident cost him the tip of his little finger, but fortunately he won’t be needing surgery.

“The test certainly didn’t end how I wanted and it is a real shame because we had made some changes to the balance of the bike that really helped my confidence with the front-end tonight. But I made a silly little mistake at Turn 10,” said Crutchlow. “I lost the rear and closed the throttle but then lost the front and I couldn’t get my left hand out from underneath the handlebar. I’ve basically taken the tip off my left little finger and it is really sore now. I don’t need surgery but it is obviously going to be uncomfortable this weekend for the race now. It is a shame because I was only 0.5s away from the top ten last night. I adapted to riding under the floodlights really quickly once I realised the shadows weren’t somebody trying to overtake me! I was confident of taking another step tonight and I’m sure I could have done without the crash.”

“It cost me nearly three hours of track time, which I can’t really afford to lose at this stage, but I’m still looking forward to my MotoGP debut. It will be an honour to line-up against this field on Sunday night and as always I’ll be giving it my best.”

Photo source | calcrutchlowforum

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Pedrosa vs Stoner, Stoner vs Pedrosa, is that going to be name of the game on Sunday evening in Qatar? The two Repsol Honda riders are currently a cut above the rest of the field having dominated both days of testing with Stoner outpacing his Spanish team mate, having made it into the 1.55’s bracket more times than Pedrosa.

Casey Stoner:

“I’m really happy. I didn’t think we would get any laps in tonight judging from the weather earlier in the day, it was a little tough but the wind seemed to settle and the track conditions improved a lot and we got some good test time in tonight. By the look of the lap times everyone seems to have taken a big step forward, but we’re happy with what we’ve achieved again here and we can enter the race weekend with confidence but at the same time everyone else will be improving their set-up so we can’t relax. We found a good rider position which I’m really happy with, having moved my position more towards the rear in Sepang - to try and find more grip, here we can run a more neutral set-up and everything seems to be working well. We did some more work on electronics tonight and also on the tyres, but generally worked in preparation for the weekend.”

Continue reading: Honda riders post Qatar test quotes

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We just knew that after posting only the 13th best time on the final of evening of testing in Qatar, Valentino Rossi would again make his recovering shoulder the main issue for his lowly position.

The Italian rider complained of losing strength after putting in so many testing laps during the intense two day test, is still struggling to make the very physical to ride GP11 turn, with no magical solution for those niggling front end problems that caused both Rossi and team mate Nicky Hayden, to crash yesterday evening.

Rossi said, “I’d say that today was pretty challenging: the weather conditions were much tougher than yesterday, and I had another crash when I slipped on a white line. Fortunately, I just fell over on the ground, it was nothing serious. The real problem was that at about an hour and a half from the finish, I started to lose strength in my shoulder, and I just couldn’t push anymore. It’s a shame, because I had just done my best time, and I may have been able to drop it a little more from there. Instead, we didn’t even mount the two soft tyres that we had. I started on a long run, but I stopped because I was losing tenths lap after lap. Let’s say that we’re not as far back as it looks, although we still have a lot of work to do, regarding both the bike and myself, because the shoulder is evidently not yet able to bear two such intense days of testing. Between now and Thursday, I’ll do some light exercise and have it massaged, and then we’ll see.”

Continue reading: MotoGP Qatar test: "Not as far back as it looks" says Rossi

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The final day of pre-season testing in Qatar finished more or less as everyone expected, with Honda on top again, only this time it was Casey Stoner who took the top spot pipping his team mate Dani Pedrosa by just 0.064s and both riders were clear from the rest of the field by more than a sixth of second and the only two to go under the 1.56 mark.

Honda has built RC212V homing missile this year and even Yamaha can’t seem to make up the gap at least at the floodlit Losail track. Ben Spies finished in third at 0.613s from Stoner, while his team mate and reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo was even further down the chart, in seventh and more than a second off pace.

Gresini Honda’s Marco Simoncelli barreled up the timesheets tonight to take fourth, while the third Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso was fifth. Randy de Puniet was the first Ducati rider in the top ten with his sixth place, while Yamaha Tech3’s Colin Edwards took eighth just in front of fellow American, Nicky Hayden on the Ducati, who was one of the numerous riders who crashed on the sand swept track.

Continue reading: MotoGP Qatar test: Stoner vs Pedrosa

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