Cal Crutchlow<\/a> was forced to retire from the Italian Grand Prix due to a shoulder issue, which he carries into this weekend\u2019s round at Balaton Park.<\/p>\n ![\"Cal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/gng_1320248_hires_1600x900.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Cal Crutchlow, 2026 Italian MotoGP.<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a0Gold and Goose<\/p>\n
Injured and lacking in track knowledge, Crutchlow acknowledges that this will be a \u201cdifficult, challenging\u201d weekend for him.<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, after the race, I stayed in Italy, I went for some MRI scans, got the diagnosis, understood what the problem is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, I\u2019m here in Hungary. I can try and ride with it. I don\u2019t know. We\u2019ll see. Obviously, in the race I didn\u2019t feel too bad, but I knew it was not possible to finish the last race.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo I think it\u2019s got any better? Potentially, but it\u2019s not a thing that will get better overnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuckily it\u2019s not a surgery thing, which is good, because I don\u2019t need that at 40 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it is what it is. It\u2019s going to be difficult, challenging, because also I don\u2019t know the circuit; I\u2019ve never been here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
Crutchlow was last on the grid at Mugello and finished there in the sprint.<\/p>\n
He expects this will be the case again at Balaton Park, but is unfazed by this as \u201cthis is a building process\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to learn the laps, so it won\u2019t be a fewer laps thing,\u201d he said on trying to conserve his physical condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is, I\u2019ll get 45 minutes in the morning, and then in the afternoon you start to hyperventilate because everyone is throwing 15 tyres to get into Q2.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut luckily I\u2019m never going to get into Q2, so it doesn\u2019t fucking matter.<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
\u201cI can just continue to ride round.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can have about 10 sets of tyres on Sunday because I\u2019ve got them left over from the Friday!<\/p>\n
![\"Cal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/gng_1320268_hires_1600x900.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Cal Crutchlow, 2026 Italian MotoGP.<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a0Gold and Goose<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll see how it is. Again, I know I\u2019ll be last in every session.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know I\u2019ll be last on the grid, and I know I\u2019ll finish last.<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019m ok with that, because this is a building process, let\u2019s say, at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we were actually very pleased with how Mugello went.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team, myself, and Honda, because to be so long off the bike and be able to jump back on and do respectable lap times, I was pleased enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LCR Honda stand-in Cal Crutchlow admits \u201cI know I\u2019ll finish last\u201d as he gears up for his MotoGP…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,340873,15613,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-715258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cal-crutchlow","tag-lcr-honda","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}