Crutchlow’s BritGP dream shattered by tyre issues
Cal Crutchlow was miffed and mystified by his inability to compete for an elusive home victory. The LCR Honda rider was forced to wrestle his spinning and shaking RC213V for 20 laps and said that his sixth place, 19 seconds adrift, was “not the reality” and “something strange” contributed to his disappointing result.
“If I finished sixth I expected to be two seconds off the win given how close the times were in practice and Jack Miller had similar issues,” Crutchlow said. “We need to investigate what happened.” Crutchlow said it was “just ridiculous” that Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci was 1.5 seconds per lap faster at the end of the race, with both on the hard compound rear.
“I had no grip from lap one, a problem with the rear tyre
similar to Mugello,” said an unhappy Crutchlow. “There’s no way in the world Petrucci can be one-and-ahalf seconds faster at the end of the race. Nothing against Danilo, he’s a great rider, but the difference is just ridiculous. “I didn’t burn up the tyre at the start of the race, I had no grip from lap one. Some tyres held up, some didn’t. You saw some of the guys really in trouble as well, but I knew from lap one I didn’t have the grip underneath me to be able to battle for the podium.” Crutchlow admitted he would “be in trouble” if he said anymore about the tyres.
It was a high-speed trapeze act for Crutchlow who also battled front tyre grip issues. At least his circus act amused his paddock bestie Miller.
“Losing the front in fifth around the last corner is not great,” Crutchlow said.“I kept standing up on the pegs with Jack behind me trying to look at the front tyre. Jack was laughing after the race, wondering what the hell I was doing.” Michelin tyre boss Pierro Tarramasso confirmed that Crutchlow was not alone in suffering excessive wear but was adamant that tyre performance issues were not the problem. “The 44°C track temperatures were the highest of the weekend and grip levels were lower than Saturday. When you over-stress the tyres, especially early in the race, they will overheat in these conditions,” Tarramasso said. “Everyone suffered some blistering but there was no technical or safety issue.”