Crutchlow feeling pain from testing crash
Added on Friday, March 18th, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor
Crutchlow feeling pain from testing crash
Cal Crutchlow has revealed that the pain in his finger is much worse than he first suspected after yesterday’s free practice but he will continue to race this weekend in Qatar.
Crutchlow injured his finger during testing earlier this week although the injury, which saw him lose the tip of his finger, was largely brushed off by the Coventry rider before this weekend’s practice.
But after FP1 on Friday evening, in which he posted the 14th fastest time of the night, Crutchlow reported that the pain in the injury is much worse than he first thought.
“That was not easy at all and being honest, the pain from the finger is really bad and it was tough to ride,” he claimed. “The crash was only three days ago and when I took the bandage off tonight, I learned there’s some nerve damage where the fingernail was. The pain when the bandage came off was something I can’t describe, so considering how uncomfortable it is, I’m pretty pleased to be where I am and doing some decent times.
“I was having trouble using the clutch so I modified the lever, but I was still having some problems shifting, particularly at the first corner when I kept going down to first instead of second. That was costing me time but I couldn’t do anything about it. We made a change to the front-end at the end of the session that we haven’t tried since Sepang and it felt night and day different. I was much faster and felt much more comfortable because I felt like the front tyre was loaded more in the corner and I could turn better.
“I’m looking forward to working more with the new front-end set-up tomorrow because I believe we can make another step and hopefully the finger will be a little bit better too.”
