The American was not the only rider to come off his bike, with James Ellison, Danilo Petrucci, Karel Abraham and Randy De Puniet all becoming unseated at various stages. The 27-year-old escaped serious injury despite clinging on to the throttle while being dragged along the ground. Spies took fourth place despite falling off his bike early in the session. 'But if the bike remains as it is at the moment, then we were going to be in for a long hard race'.īen Spies finished a place behind Crutchlow, to give Yamaha three of the top four places. 'If we can make a big step forward in warm up then we can challenge for a podium and maybe fight for the win,' he said. Meanwhile, world champion Stoner said he and his team have set-up problems to iron out to challenge on Sunday. We are ready to race, and can look for a really good result tomorrow.' 'The race is tomorrow, but I think that we have a done a good job all winter long. 'I knew that Cal wanted to do something very strong, and he has done that. The last British rider to finish on the podium in a MotoGP race was Jeremy McWilliams at Donington in 2000 'I am so happy and pleased because the session was very tense,' he said. Team manager Herve Poncharal has consistently backed the 26-year-old's talents, and was delighted by the good start of his rider in the first qualifying session of the season. 'But if I can get out of here with a half-decent result, I will be happy.' Just because I am on the front row does not mean that I will be on the podium,' Crutchlow told the BBC. 'We are only at the first round, and it is only qualifying. Stoner's Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa was also surprisingly off the pace, qualifying seventh.Ĭrutchlow refused to get carried away by his performance, insisting that he needs to replicate his qualifying form in Sunday's race.

Seven-time champion Valentino Rossi finished down in 12th with Ducati team-mate Nicky Hayden in fifth. Just because I am on the front row does not mean that I will be on the podium Yamaha rider Cal CrutchlowĬrutchlow recorded his best ever qualifying position, finishing only 0.167 seconds behind Stoner and 0.388 seconds behind leader Lorenzo.

Motogp qualifying