Tricky Opening Day for WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team in Thailand

30-09-2022

Tricky Opening Day for WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team in Thailand

Cal Crutchlow and Darryn Binder concluded Friday in Buriram in P12 and P21 respectively.

The Chang International Circuit in Buriram welcomed teams and riders this week with continuous rain. Yet, on the first day of action, participants found a mainly dry track for the MotoGP class today, which saw riders getting re-used to the Thai venue in two interesting Free Practice sessions.

Cal Crutchlow started out with a strong pace for the WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team. In FP1 he missed out on the top 10 by just a whisker of 0.039 seconds. In the second session of the day, the Englishman experimented with tyres and settings of the bike and came close to a huge improvement towards the end. After two sectors he was on the way to make it into the top 5, but unfortunately had a nasty highside on his fast lap, which ruined his chances of further improvements.

In the meantime, Darryn Binder took his time this morning to relearn the 4.6-kilometer-long track aboard his Yamaha YZR-M1. The MotoGP rookie though managed to do a huge step from the first to the second Free Practice. He improved his lap time by 1.582 seconds, eventually losing out on the top by just 1.086 seconds. He unfortunately registered a fall at the end of the second session but still managed to move up from P23 to P21 in the combined practice times.

Now both WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP riders get ready to attack again in FP3 tomorrow at 10:50 local time (05:50 CET).

Cal Crutchlow

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team

"Obviously today was not an ideal day, ending the day with X-ray of my right ankle that I badly broke some years ago. At the moment, I have some severe pain in my ankle but the X-ray came back negative, this can also be swelling on the ankle at the moment but it seems a little bit different from the place I broke it before, we have to continue and try to rest, ice the ankle and see how it is.

"I felt very good today on the bike in FP1 when we were pushing for the lap time. I made one mistake in the lap which would have meant I would have been in the top 10. And this afternoon I was going for the lap time, I was pushing because I felt good with the bike, unfortunately I had too much angle, and that's what happens when you ride a MotoGP bike and you're pushing. Honestly speaking, I felt good and I feel that my pace is really good and I would be able to fight this weekend for a good position again. The problem is right now, we will have to see the extent of the injuries because I have some injuries on my elbows, back and most of my body but we will see. Overall, the team did a good job and I'm happy with the way things are going. It was a shame to crash at the end of the session but we will see what will happen tomorrow."

Darryn Binder

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team

"It's good to be back here in Buriram, I really enjoyed riding the track on the MotoGP bike. This morning, we just focused on learning the track and just doing as many laps as we could on one set of tyres. Getting ready for the afternoon and just hoping for the weather to be good to us, we got really lucky and we were able to get two dry sessions and I made a really good improvement from FP1 to FP2. But unfortunately right at at the end when I was trying to do the final time attack, I crashed on the hot lap. A very strange crash and an unfortunate way to end the day but I'm happy with the work we did in FP2. I feel like we've got some good potential on this track and hoping that tomorrow we can make some more steps forward."