Cal Crutchlow’s crew chief Christophe Bourguignon believes the team have made some serious progress with the LCR Honda’s base setting which allowed the British rider to stand on the MotoGP podium for the first time in 23 races at the Sachsenring.

The team didn’t make any changes from qualifying to the race, and used settings they found during similar conditions at Assen.

“We have two good base settings. In Assen he was happy with that setting and we came back to that base. In the dry we knew yesterday we had a good base and we didn’t change anything. It was the same bike as yesterday. There was a little question mark whether to use the intermediates or not. When they need to push we knew those intermediates were two or three seconds slower than the slick. It was a good choice to go to the slick,” Bourguignon told BSN.

Because the Honda is smaller and shorter than the Yamaha, Crutchlow and Marquez are able to generate more heat in the front Michelin, something that played to their advantage on Sunday.

“We always use a harder front tyre than other people and probably we generate more heat. This is a disadvantage in normal conditions but I would say also that when Marc and Cal go for it, they go for it. They can ride on the limit and they have the talent to do those things. The conditions also suited their riding style at this race track. If he did not come in on that lap he would have not been on the podium at all. We saw Jack. For the same thing. OK, we’re on the podium. This time it worked for us and hopefully we can do it again.”

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