Cal Crutchlow's view on 1st night in Qatar: "“We didn’t expect anything different. We knew that not testing here was a massive disadvantage and we were going to get hammered by everyone because we never and our bike takes a lot of setting up. So tonight I was riding around and we had quite a few power delivery problems more than anything. But for the electronics this bike normally needs one session and then for the next session it is a lot better. I expect to make some improvements tomorrow but I expected a big gap and we should never have gone to Australia.”

What was power delivery issue?
“We are just playing. In some corners it was way too low and in some it was too high and the same on the straights. This bike needs some setting up and to go of Iannone’s reference was not possible. It clearly shows when Iannone is a second faster than me and Dovi how much track time we needed. But I am optimistic and we will have a lot different setting tomorrow. I didn’t expect to be any faster or any worse today.”

Grip
“S**t. I don’t like the heat proofed stuff. It is ridiculous and we have no problem here with safety or blistering and no problem in most of the tracks. I think last year we ran the heat proof tyre in two races, so why run it at every race? The old tyre suited every rider. This tyre suits a couple and it is difficult for Lorenzo. But me and him ride the same as we carry a lot of lean angle for a long time. We don’t have enough grip with the Ducati to pick the bike up and drive it out because we are spinning so much. The tyre is the tyre and we have to make the bike work with it. I am not going to turn round to Bridgestone and complain because everyone is on the same tyre and we need to make the Ducati work on that tyre and that’s it.”

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