Friday pacesetter Cal Crutchlow says he is pleased with the improvements Honda has made with its new engine over the winter, but is still 'not sure' about it under acceleration.
The British rider shot to the top of the timesheets in the final hour of running at the Buriram Circuit with a 1:30.797s and remained there despite a late challenge from Suzuki's Alex Rins.
Having spent the majority of the Sepang test evaluating three different specification engines on his RC213V, Crutchlow – along with factory stablemates Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez – seemed to favour the latest version.
While feeling Honda has “found” what it was “lacking” in 2017 with the new engine, the Briton remained unsure about the motor's performance out of the corners – a concern Marquez raised after the Sepang test.
“I felt good in Malaysia and the HRC engineers over the winter have done a good job,” explained Crutchlow.
“Last year we were lacking something, but this year we've found it. We still have some of the same problems, but we've found something this year that's helped us to be more competitive.
“I'm pleased with how the team's working, and they've definitely improved the engine. Acceleration, I'm not sure; we have to look at the data from Sepang.
“I'm pleased with the engine, but we need to continue working on the rest of the bike.”
Crutchlow's day was not completely without incident. The British rider – along with Pedrosa – crashed at the tricky first-gear final corner.
When asked about the crash, the LCR man put the blame simply on a lack of concentration: “I crashed this morning on the fifth laps or something,” he said.
“But I wasn't concentrating so well. There are a few bumps on the last corner and it's a tricky corner. But that's why we're here to test.”
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