WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team to Start Aragon GP From Rows Seven and Eight

17-09-2022

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team to Start Aragon GP From Rows Seven and Eight

Yellow flags stopped Cal Crutchlow and Darryn Binder from further improvements in Qualifying today.

The sun was shining bright over the Motorland Aragon on Saturday again, although proceedings didn’t go according to plan for the WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team with Cal Crutchlow registering a first crash towards the end of Free Practice three this morning, while Darryn Binder overrode the limits twice today. Luckily both escaped their respective crashes unharmed.

Yamaha test rider Crutchlow, taking over the Yamaha YZR-M1 from this weekend until the rest of the season, made a step in FP3 this morning to go 0.578 seconds faster than on Friday afternoon. He was missing out on the top by less than a second and went 0.412 seconds faster again in Qualifying one. Yet, he was slowed down on his final time attack due to other riders crashing, which meant he couldn’t further improve on his P19 in Qualifying overall.

Binder, who went down at the end of FP3 this morning and again in FP4, still jumped back on the bike for Q1, starting optimistically. Like his new teammate, the MotoGP rookie couldn’t get closer to the front, as yellow flags stopped his progress on his second and final outing. He was left back in P13 of Q1, which means he’ll have to launch off from row eighth tomorrow when the lights go out for the Aragon Grand Prix, round 15 of 2022.

Cal Crutchlow

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team

“Today was not a bad day. I feel we improved my pace a little bit, but unfortunately, we didn’t take advantage of that in FP3 or the Qualifying 2 today. We had a little bit of an issue that held us back to be able to really make a lap time. The good thing is, the potential was higher, but again, it was nice to be out there. I felt myself a little bit more competitive out there today, which was good fun. Obviously, with having six races, I need to get myself in the frame of mind to push and have a bit of competitiveness in me. Unfortunately, I crashed at the end of FP3, but we completely understand why. We’ll look forward to try to improve the bike for tomorrow’s race because as of yet we haven’t touched one setting of the bike. It has been the same in every session, which was our plan. We changed the electronics quite a lot over the sessions and this was why we didn’t touch the bike yet. Hopefully tonight we can improve for tomorrow.”

Darryn Binder

WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team

“Saturday didn’t go completely to plan. FP3 started off alright this morning, I made some nice steps, but unfortunately, at the end when I was doing a time attack, I crashed. In FP4 we were just working on the tires for the race. Unfortunately, I had another crash. Qualifying didn’t go according to plan, I didn’t feel confident riding around in the beginning. I went out for the second run, but both laps have been yellow flagged. It wasn’t what I expected, but tomorrow is another day and I’ll do my best.”