Honda has confirmed LCR's Cal Crutchlow will remain a factory-contracted rider with HRC through to the end of the 2020 MotoGP season.
Crutchlow penned a two-year factory deal with Honda in 2017, racing in LCR colours – which he has done since 2015 – but receiving near-machine parity with Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa, as well as testing new parts. His new deal also means he will remain within the LCR fold.
Winning his third grand prix with Honda in Argentina this year, adding to the victories he sealed at Brno and Phillip Island in 2016, HRC President Yoshishige Nomura believes Crutchlow “deserves the status of a factory rider.”
“We are happy to announce Cal's contract extension,” Nomura said on the eve of Crutchlow's home race at Silverstone.
“Last year we contracted with him for 2018 and 2019 as an HRC factory rider. This year he has again shown his strong talent and his performance deserves the status of factory rider.
“There is no better way to show him that than by making a new agreement with him, so we have decided to extend our contract.
“We've got to know Cal very well since he arrived at Honda in 2015. By hard work and by getting many good results, he has contributed a lot to Honda and the LCR Honda MotoGP team and he always gives us very useful feedback for the evolution of the RC213V.”
Crutchlow added: "I am very pleased to renew and extend my relationship with Honda HRC and the LCR Honda Team again in 2020.
"We have all worked very hard and we have had great successes and will continue too, I’m sure.
"As I said in the past, I have the best support I could ask for from Honda, and Lucio and his team do an excellent job to give me a competitive bike every weekend."
Despite his factory status this year, Crutchlow was passed over by HRC in favour of outgoing Ducati man Jorge Lorenzo to partner Marquez at the works team next season.
Following a fourth-place finish at the Red Bull Ring, Crutchlow now sits eighth in the standings on 103 points, 98 adrift of series leader Marquez and two down on current leading satellite rider Danilo Petrucci.
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