Cal Crutchlow will start Sunday’s Grand Prix of Aragon from the second row of the grid after an impressive performance during qualifying sealed the fifth fastest time of the session. The Briton’s performance once again sealed the accolade of Top Independent Team for LCR Honda, and that was despite a front-end crash on his second qualifying run.

The 30 year-old has been in fine form all weekend, despite still lamenting about corner entry with his RC213V, and has a decent shout for a podium finish in the 23-lap race. Crutchlow has consistently churned out competitive race laps, and although he was disappointed not to get a final fast run in, still stopped the clock in a best time of 1’47.843 to set up what will hopefully be a great race. 

#35 Cal Crutchlow – 5th (1’47.843)

“Obviously I’m disappointed because I felt I could easily have been on the front row today. I made a mistake under braking at the end of the session, but this is typical with the Honda at the moment. I was pushing so hard in the braking zone to make up time on the others, but that’s MotoGP. For sure I wasn’t going to get in front of Marc Marquez who took pole, but I should have been second. I was pushing to the limit and this is what happens.”

“The hope for tomorrow is that we are up there battling, but starting from the second row it is a bit more difficult. We have Dovizioso next to us and he always gets good starts, but he could hold us up in the race because he has such a fast bike out of the corners. You need to be able to push in the first few laps, but he might get in my way. I hope not!”