Crutchlow blames tyre 'lottery' for poor MotoGP Austin qualifying

MotoGP points leader Cal Crutchlow says his poor qualifying performance at Austin's Circuit of the Americas was caused by a "bad tyre"

LCR Honda's Crutchlow, who holds a three-point lead coming into the third round of the series, said he had heard of similar issues arising around the paddock.

Crutchlow had been in the top five of every practice session at Austin, but then slumped back to seventh, eight tenths off fastest qualifier Marc Marquez.

"You're hearing it more and more these days - week in, week out - we will hear 'we've got a bad tyre' - and we do, it's a lottery," he said.

"But if you pick a bad one for the race, you're in the shit. That's just the way it is.

"I have to accept it because I'm sure at other points in the season there will be other guys who will have bad tyres in qualifying."

He said he couldn't explain the Q2 issue he experienced with the rear tyre in detail as it had yet to be discussed with tyre supplier Michelin.

Crutchlow added: "I'm not happy, seventh is very disappointing.

"Disappointing is probably an understatement, because it wasn't our fault.

"I had great pace in the first run, and the second one I didn't have the feeling with the rear tyre.

"And you can always ride around the feeling with the rear tyre unless you have a major problem with it - and I had a problem with it.

"So in the end, I don't know what the problem was, but suddenly at the end of the lap I was hardly able to go around the last four corners of the track.

"We were running well all weekend, I felt competitive, I also felt good for qualifying to be on the front row - and it wasn't to be and we have to accept it and get on with [the] job, which is to try to be on the podium."