Crutchlow all fired up by home encounter

In his debut season in World Superbike Yamaha Sterilgarda man Cal Crutchlow looks to be well on his way to becoming the ‘Rookie of the Year'. Four podiums, all third places, as well as four poles and four fastest laps however are for the moment not a particularly satisfying tally for the 24 year-old from Coventry, who will be trying to propel himself and his Yamaha R1 to his and its first win of the year at the UK circuit.

"The home race is no different to any other race," said Cal Crutchlow. "I always want to do well and give it my best shot. Last year in World Supersport at Donington I did the same. I especially hope that we put on a good show for all the fans that turn out to see the seven Brits in action. We had some tyre issues at Brno; hopefully these won't be repeated this round and we can focus on being fastest all weekend and delivering two race wins."

Crutchlow's crew chief Marcus Eschenbacher is convinced that it will not be easy to find the right set-up on a track that is full of character. "Silverstone is a completely new track for us so we have to evaluate a new gearbox, chassis and electronic setup. The track has all kinds of character, a fast part and also a very tight infield. The challenge will be to find the best compromise in a very short timeframe. We will start the weekend with our base setup that we've developed bit by bit. We also have some new chassis setups to try; this will be introduced in the spare bike. So we hope to find the best gearbox and base setup on Friday and start fine tuning on Saturday."