Cal Crutchlow put his Ducati second on the grid for Sunday’s Tissot Australian Grand Prix race, with a solid performance in Q2.Crutchlow was confident for qualifying, having had strong pace all weekend and advancing directly into Q2 from free practice. All the riders were able to complete two runs during the 15-minute session.

Crutchlow’s lap time of 1’28.642s came late in the session and was just 0.234s behind Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) on pole. The good grid result for Crutchlow comes on the back of his teammate Andrea Dovizioso’s pole in Motegi as Ducati’s good qualifying results continue.

Second is not only Crutchlow’s first front row in 2014 and with Ducati, but also his best grid position since he qualified on pole at Brno in 2013.

Crutchlow reflected, “We’ve been going a lot better this weekend. All the riders have been struggled with the tyres. I’m very pleased to give Ducati this front row, they deserve it. We’ve worked very hard all weekend, we are on the same bike that I tested in Sepang and also here, I used the same setup.”

“I’m pleased to get the front row with the old bike and all the credit to the team,” he added, referring to his use of the GP14, as opposed to the GP14.2 which Dovizioso now rides.