The view was echoed by championship leader Marc Marquez, who said in his media debrief: “This is not a race to attack, but to take points.”

It is the front tyres causing concern in the high track temperatures, in spite of Michelin adding an extra asymmetric front to the usual allocation.

A rash of crashes in FP4 – both Tech3 Yamaha riders Zarco and Syahrin, plus Dani Pedrosa (Honda), Alex Rins (Suzuki) and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) – all happened with riders using the hard front option, which lacks grip, but at least offers better hopes of endurance.

According to Marquez: “Here the tyre allocation is a bit too soft for us, especially in the afternoon when the temperature is higher. In qualifying when I started pushing hard I overheated the front in the space of three corners.”

Crutchlow, who also uses the front end hard, had been running with the latest large Honda wings, but removed them for qualifying, to reduce the stress on the front tyre.

By Michael Scott