Crutchlow Starts from P17, Binder with Best Qualifying in P18

15-10-2022

Crutchlow Starts from P17, Binder with Best Qualifying in P18

The WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team Duo will start the Australian Grand Prix from the sixth row of the grid.

The typical Phillip Island weather dominated Saturday in Australia once again. Some sunshine and wind accompanied the MotoGP riders on the Island for Free Practices three and four as well as Qualifying. Both WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP riders have been close together in the decisive session to start next to each other tomorrow from row six.

Cal Crutchlow made some huge steps throughout day two of action at the famous Phillip Island Circuit. In Free Practice three this morning, the Brit improved on his practice time from Friday by 1.261 seconds to finish in P13, missing out on the top 10 and a direct Q2 entry by just 0.062 seconds. In Qualifying he lowered his personal best once again by 0.268 seconds and landed in P7 of Q1, which means he’ll have to start from 17th position come race day.

In the meantime, Darryn Binder stepped forward as well. He went 0.742 seconds faster in FP3 than on Friday afternoon and did an amazing lap of 1'28.760 in Qualifying, which was again more than 1.5 seconds quicker than his FP3 time. He ended up closely behind his teammate, missing out by only 0.143 seconds. Therefore, he will line up in his best Qualifying result of his rookie campaign so far in P18 at the end of the sixth row when the red lights go off tomorrow at 14:00 local time (05:00 CET).

Cal Crutchlow

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team

“I feel better today than what I did yesterday. Unfortunately, the wind affected us again today with the instability of the bike. I think all Yamaha riders were struggling when the wind came up in the afternoon session. I was again unfortunate not to be able to be fast enough to go through to Q2, but I was pleased with my lap time in Qualifying. The problem is, it’s just not fast enough in MotoGP at the moment. Everybody is riding really well. I’m positive for a good race tomorrow. I feel better with the bike and I can probably manage the situation a little bit better than the guys around me, so hopefully I will be able to go forward in the race. We worked hard as a team overnight. Tomorrow we will try to do our best. All credits to the team for the job we are doing. We’re trying some different things to what Yamaha is trying in the Factory Team just to get some information of how the bike works with a different setting. Let’s see tomorrow if we can be up there.”

Darryn Binder

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team

“Today has been a good day here in Philip Island. Every session we’ve been making good steps forward and in Qualifying we managed to get our best Qualifying position so far this year. I feel we are heading in the right direction, making decent steps forward, so I really can’t wait for tomorrow’s race. I feel really good on all the tyres and we are doing a good job this weekend. So I’ll go out and have fun tomorrow and enjoy my favorite track on the calendar!”