For a second time this season, a Ducati sprang a leak, caused two following riders to crash, and brought out the red flags.
The leak came from Alvaro Bautista’s Pull&Bear GP16, at the start of FP 3 on Saturday morning. It was at the bottom of the hill, into Schwantz Corner. The Spaniard almost crashed, ran off into the gravel, then tumbled at low speed.
Rossi in his wake missed the spillage, but not so the Hondas of Marquez and Crutchlow, some little way behind. Both went flying at, Crutchlow later said, 300 km/h.
Marquez was unhurt; Crutchlow not so lucky. Not only was his LCR Honda badly damaged, but he suffered a painful whack on the back.
He went out again, but as the pain worsened the Medical Director became concerned, and ordered a scan before passing him fit to race.
However, this could not be done before qualifying, and Crutchlow was allowed out under sufferance.
He managed to qualify a strong fifth.
“I didn’t feel too bad when I was riding. Sure, I had some pain from this morning’s accident. Marc’s bike had a couple of scratches, mine barely had two wheels, so sorry to the team.”
The first time was at Assen, when an out-lap leak from Dovizioso’s factory bike brought down Folger and Lorenzo.
Crutchlow, Czech MotoGP 2017