Cal Crutchlow has slammed MotoGP tyre supplier Michelin for building ‘the tyre for Ducati this weekend’, after he and his fellow Honda riders struggled with the available front tyres during the Italian Grand Prix.
As is standard practice this season, Michelin brought three options of front tyre to Mugello: a symmetrical soft and hard compound and an asymmetric medium compound. Despite the range, none of the tyres were hard enough to suit any of the Honda riders.
In the race Crutchlow, along with Marc Marquez and Jack Miller, was forced into running the medium option because the right shoulder of the tyre was of a harder compound than the hard option itself.
However, this failed to aid Crutchlow much, the Briton ultimately feeling it was not worth turning up to Mugello as a result.
“We were managing a bad situation quite well, because this weekend the tyres were terrible for us,” the LCR rider said.
“I believe Michelin built the tyre for Ducati this weekend. It was always going to be difficult to beat the Ducatis here with the tyre allocation.
“The front tyres were too soft for Dani (Pedrosa), so how are me and Marc feeling, and Jack? It was pointless to even turn up, especially when we have a last lap like that.
“I wonder when they’ll (Michelin) start helping us as a manufacturer out because they seem to be helping everyone else out.”
Ducati saw two riders take to the podium at its home round , with Andrea Dovizioso tallying up his third MotoGP win and Pramac’s Danilo Petrucci making his first podium appearance since Silverstone 2015.
Meanwhile, the top Honda runner was Marquez in sixth spot, who spent much of the 23 laps staring at the rear tyre of Aspar Ducati rider Alvaro Bautista.
After enduring a tough qualifying in 13th, Crutchlow was debating 11th spot with Pedrosa on the final lap when an overtake from the Spaniard at Scarperia went awry.
Suffering a brief shoulder dislocation in the accident, Crutchlow expressed his dismay at the situation in the gravel before later claiming to British television he was pleased Pedrosa lost second in the world championship.
Twitter: RT @26_DaniPedrosa: Difficult race today. Sorry @calcrutchlow for this very unfortunate crash. #ItalianGP https://t.co/eZG2D4LbyI (@MotoGP)
The Briton did eventually apologise for his comments via social media, later admitting he has been the instigator of similar incidents in his career.
“At first he said something happened. So then I started to rage because he said something happened, as in it wasn’t his fault, some mysterious thing just jumped and decided to jump on me.
“That’s why I was angry, because he was lying to me. If you make a mistake, you make a mistake. He apologised and that’s it. There’s nothing I can do, I can’t change the result by punching him or something like that.
“I’ve done it and I’m sure I will do it again in my career. Sometimes when you try to pass people, it doesn’t work and that’s it.”
