After a three-week break, the MotoGP World Championship resumed today with the first of three flyaway races at the Twin Ring in Motegi.
However, the weather at the Japanese circuit on Friday was far from ideal with heavy rain ensuring a tricky start to practice for the premier class riders.
Indeed, LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow fell foul of the conditions as he suffered a dramatic fall, before recovering well to end the day in ninth position overall.
Crutchlow had performed impressively on the drenched track in FP1 but, towards the end of the session, lost control of his RC213V under braking and collided with the Ducati of Jorge Lorenzo. Fortunately, both men were able to walk away from the incident unharmed.
Further rain ensured FP2 was a similarly wet affair, although all the field managed to improve their morning times. In the end, a competitive Crutchlow claimed ninth spot, just behind fellow Honda rider Dani Pedrosa, with Andrea Dovizioso edging out the Spaniard's team-mate Marc Marquez at the top of the timesheets.
โWe had quite a good day today,โ Cal said. โI feel quite strong in the rainy conditions, but we need to improve the engine braking of the bike a little bit. The track has great grip and we worked very well as a team today, but unfortunately I put the new tyre on at the wrong time and didn't improve my lap time towards the end of the session. I had an unfortunate incident with Jorge (Lorenzo) this morning that was a difficult situation, but I'm glad that we are both okay after it.โ
