Crutchlow bags third front row start on trot

Cal Crutchlow is beginning to carve out his own place on the front row of the MotoGP grids.

Tomorrow the Tech 3 Yamaha rider will join Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa at the head of the grid after sealing third place in qualifying at Aragon.

Crutchlow led much of the one-hour session before being overhauled by the factory duo, but the British ace is more than satisfied with his efforts as he takes his place on the front row for a sixth time this season on the satellite M1.

The 26-year-old, whose best lap of 1m 49.576s was just 0.172s behind Lorenzo, said: "I think we did a very good job today to finish on the front row when this session was the first time we have been able to work on the settings in the dry.

"My main aim for the session was to get the bike set-up for the race and immediately out of the box I was fast and all through the session I was able to steadily improve my pace.

"I'm confident going into tomorrow's race because the bike feels good, despite the fact that we missed a lot of dry track time, so credit to my Yamaha Tech 3 crew because they did a fantastic job again," added Crutchlow, who was 0.6s clear at the top with 15 minutes remaining.

The Coventry man is now determined to claim another rostrum finish after achieving the feat for the first time at Brno in the Czech Republic.

"I thought we'd be struggling more because Jorge, Dani and Ben all tested here for two days recently, so to be so close to them shows we've done a great job," he said.

"That is the third front row start on the bounce now but after Misano I have got to finish the race tomorrow.

"Hopefully it will be in the top three because it would be great to get another podium."