Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team riders Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith will start tomorrow’s Tissot Australian Grand Prix from sixth and seventh respectively after both mounted a strong challenge for the front row in a record-breaking qualifying session.

Crutchlow was less than 0.2s away from registering his eighth front row start in 2013, while teammate Smith was only 0.132s further behind in seventh position on a challenging day at the spectacular Phillip Island track.

Lap records might have been smashed across the board thanks to impressive grip levels from new asphalt at the coastal venue, but concerns have emerged over excessive rear tyre wear from the allocation made available by official tyre supplier Bridgestone.

Crutchlow and Smith were both able to lap just a fraction outside of Casey Stoner’s 2008 pole position benchmark in a record-breaking session that saw factory Yamaha rider, Jorge Lorenzo, obliterate the outright record with a sensational lap of 1.27.899.

Crutchlow’s best lap of 1.28.809 was only 0.061s behind Sepang winner Dani Pedrosa and Smith set a 1.28.941, but unusually high temperatures for the Australian Grand Prix and high grip levels from the new Phillip Island track surface resulted in endurance issues being encountered with all tyre options.

Crutchlow and Smith will now consult with their Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew and Bridgestone technicians over the best selection for tomorrow’s race, which is currently scheduled to run over 27-laps.

Tomorrow’s race is the 16th of this year’s World Championship and is the middle of a flyaway triple-header that started in Malaysia last weekend and concludes in Japan next Sunday.

Cal Crutchlow 6th 1.28.809 – 9 laps:

“I am pretty disappointed with today’s result because I expected to be higher up than sixth. I wasn’t far off the front row and was pretty close to Valentino in third but the gap to Jorge in pole position is really big and I thought I’d be much closer. I’ve not had enough rear grip and I was lacking confidence to push. I think we can clearly improve the bike and myself. In FP4 I did the whole session on the extra hard tyre on the recommendation of Bridgestone but we know there is a question mark for the race tomorrow. We need to listen to Bridgestone’s advice on what tyre will be raced but I am sure my pace is better than sixth.”

Bradley Smith 7th 1.28.491 – 9 laps:

“It has obviously been quite a confusing day with the soft tyre not being an option for the race tomorrow, but at least we could use it in practice and qualifying. I have been happy with the bike today. It has felt much better and I like how it was reacting. I really concentrated on making sure my first flying lap was a good one and at the end I am really happy to finish with a 28.9 because yesterday I wasn’t even sure if I could get into the 29s. I am not far off the front row at all and we have done a good job. Now we have got to wait and see what happens with the tyre situation for tomorrow’s race because it seems there is a lot of uncertainty around. I am looking forward to the race and my target will be to battle with Cal and Bautista.”

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