Strong Opening to Australian GP for WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team

14-10-2022

Strong Opening to Australian GP for WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team

Cal Crutchlow and Darryn Binder were right in the mix on Friday at Phillip Island.

The typical several seasons in one day weather welcomed teams and riders this weekend as the MotoGP World Championship returns to Australia. While the rain never stopped throughout Thursday, Friday was sunny but windy and fresh for the first two premier class sessions of the weekend.

Thereby, Cal Crutchlow, who traditionally enjoys riding the unique Phillip Island circuit found himself in the middle of the pack while getting re-used to the undulating track. He concluded the first Free Practice in P17, missing out on the top by 1.5 seconds. In FP2, he improved by 1.662 seconds to miss only 0.731 seconds to the fastest rider, yet he ended up in P18 of the super-competitive MotoGP field.

In the meantime, MotoGP rookie Darryn Binder got along well straight away. He finished FP1 even slightly ahead of his teammate in P16, showing how much he loves to be back at his favourite circuit after the Australian GP fell victim to the pandemic in the recent two years. He went 0.622 seconds quicker in the second session of the day to end up in P23.

Hoping that the weather stays stable, the WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team duo is eager to attack again in FP3 tomorrow morning at 09.55 local time (00:55 CET).

Cal Crutchlow

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team

“I was disappointed with the result today. I have probably my worst feeling ever around Phillip Island with the motorcycle. The instability of the bike is not in our favour at the moment. We are really struggling to find a good setting with the bike. We tried a few different things, we tried the hard rear tyre for Yamaha, which we used some laps doing. We got some vital information for them. After that, we tried to work on the setting of the bike to improve the stability, but the bike doesn’t feel like my own around here at the moment. We will think about the setting tonight for tomorrow’s Free Practice. It was good to get two dry sessions. Obviously, the first one had some patches. We know where we have to work on. I have good ambitions for the race here. The team is working hard and I look forward to trying to improve tomorrow.”

Darryn Binder

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team

“It’s been a really cool day here in Phillip Island. I was so glad to finally spin some laps at this track on the MotoGP bike. It’s definitely still my favourite track on the calendar. We’ve been lucky today with the weather, which has been a little bit up and down. This morning there were some little rivers crossing the track, but luckily this afternoon we got a complete dry session. I slowly but surely find my way around Phillip Island. I feel good with the bike and look forward to tomorrow to make some more steps forward.