Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team riders Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith completed a successful one-day test session at the Circuito de Jerez track in Spain today.
After racing to a third successive top five finish this season in yesterday’s 27-lap race, Crutchlow was hard at work again today to post 67-laps while evaluating a new Yamaha YZR-M1 chassis.
Still feeling sore and bruised after two heavy crashes on Saturday, the British rider managed to get through a tremendous amount of testing work on behalf of Yamaha, which included experimenting with a different engine braking strategy and wheelbase modifications to improve front and rear grip.
The 27-year-old was able to set the second fastest time and his best of 1.38.916 was only 0.092s behind Marc Marquez, who led the timesheets at the end of the eight-hour session.
Clear blue skies and scorching hot sun meant conditions were perfect for testing and gave Smith the ideal opportunity to work on evaluating a new YZR-M1 chassis.
The chassis upgrade gave Smith better stability in the braking zone and improved rear grip, and he was able to lap consistently in the 1.40 bracket throughout the 50 laps he completed.
Satisfied with the improved feeling and confidence he got from the revised chassis, Smith will go to the forthcoming French MotoGP in Le Mans preparing to use the new frame in the all-important home round for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team.t.
Cal Crutchlow 2nd 1.38.916 – 67 laps :
“I’m happy to have got through so much work today and do almost 70 laps because my back is still quite sore from the two big crashes I had on Saturday. I tried a different frame today but honestly I couldn’t really find any improvement. There were some positive and negative points but overall it felt the same as what I’ve been racing so far. I tried a few engine braking settings for Yamaha and it was important for them to get some data and information in that area. We ran the bike with a lot of engine braking to see how the bike would react and make it slide on corner entry. I couldn’t really feel a big benefit going into the corner but it was a bit better braking straight up and down and it was a worthwhile exercise. It was a positive day and after a tough weekend with the crashes to finish fifth in the race and second in the test today shows again we are doing a good job.”
Bradley Smith 10th 1.40.009 – 50 laps :
“I spent the whole day working on race set-up and I was lucky enough to be given a new chassis, so I am very grateful to Yamaha for that. I really liked the new chassis and I was able to lap a lot more comfortable. We tried a few different solutions with that new frame and I made some big steps with my pace on old tyres. It is difficult to say how much the improvement is compared to yesterday because the conditions were really tricky in the race but I was able to lap in the 1.40s all day today on new and old tyres. I felt happy at that pace and it didn’t feel like I was risking too much as well. Hopefully that is a good step in the right direction but we will see in Le Mans where we will have both bikes running the new frame. I was much more stable on the brakes and I had much more rear grip and I was closer on race pace, so I can go to Le Mans optimistic.”
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Press Release
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