Fastest Crutchlow concludes 'great weekend'
Less than 24 hours after claiming a debut MotoGP podium, Crutchlow was quickly back in the groove as he assessed a range of different M1 settings during 47 laps.
The Briton spent the majority of his laps on worn Bridgestone tyres and was able to set a fast and consistent pace throughout. Crutchlow's best time of 1m 56.461s put him at the top of the timesheets by 0.117s from Dovizioso.
"It was a good test and I was really pleased with my times,” said Crutchlow. “We did the whole morning and the first run of the afternoon on the same rear tyre and it was an old one from qualifying on Saturday. I did a 56.9 on it, which is basically as fast as my race pace and it had 44 laps on it.
“We tried some different settings but the only problem I have with this bike now is we make some big changes but the lap time is the same, so you never know which direction to go in.
“In practice for the race on Friday I struggled with the hard tyre but today I tested it again and I was lot faster and consistent as well, so that was a big positive.
“We can leave Brno really happy because it has been a great weekend. I signed a new contract with the Yamaha Tech 3 Team, got my best grid position, scored my first ever MotoGP podium and then set the fastest time at the test today.
“We can go to Misano in a positive frame of mind and I'm confident we will be challenging close to the front again.”
Fourth in yesterday's 22-lap race, Dovizioso also tried different set-up options with his prime focus on improving mid-corner speed.
The Italian, who has scored five podiums this year, was leading the timesheets when he concluded testing at lunchtime.
“It was a positive test today because we tried to understand if a different set-up could help give me more corner speed compared to the race, particularly in the middle of the corner,” he said.
“We found some positive and negative points with the changes we made so it was good to experiment with the set-up and we have found a direction to help me be faster in the middle of the corner.
“We tried something on the front but this didn't make such a big difference, so it is clearer now that the improvements have to come from the rear to give me more speed in the middle of the corner.
“The grip was quite good but the wind was very strong and it was really difficult to do the lap time, so I am happy we made a small improvement and I'm looking forward to seeing how some of the changes we tried work at the next race in Misano."
Factory Yamaha rider and world championship leader Jorge Lorenzo was third, 0.238s from Crutchlow. Sunday's race winner Dani Pedrosa was the top Honda rider in fourth, +0.242s.
