The Ya💜maha test rider - who retired from full-time racing at the end of 2020, but has been drafted into Razlan Razali’s team from Misano after the surprise retirement of Andrea Dovizioso - joked it had been the MotoGP equivalent of a mic drop:

“I took the opportunityꦉ to see if I could put slicks and go fastest - I've retired 💫on top because I'm not coming back tomorrow! That’s it. I can go home happy that I’ve done my job!”

On a more serious note, Crutchlow was concerned by how both he and Yamaha title contender Fabio Quartararo had struggled on wet tyres earlier in the🎃 session, given the high chance of more rain storms over the next two days at Sepang.

• Malaysian MotoGP, Sepang - F💜ree Practice (2) Results
• Malaysian Moto💝GP, Sepang - Free Practice ꦅ(1) Results
• What result does Francesco Bagnaia need to💙 be MotoGP champion at Sepang?

“What was concerning was the start of the session, how Frankie [Morbidelli] was so f✃ast and me and Fabio were so slow,” Crutchlow said. “Our bike doesn't work in the greasy condition, when th🃏ere's not enough water on the track and we just spin and spin and spin.

“Ba💛sically what's happening in the dry is doubled in the wet, you can't even open the throttle. So Frankie d꧟id very, very well because he was fastest at the start of the session.

“Then I tookꦚ the opportunity to put slicks in at the ꦦend and pushed a little bit, but it's still 5 seconds off what we should be doing. I felt OK. I would have done the same in a test, let alone in a [grand prix] session.

“But the tea🦂m were obvioಞusly happy, with the sponsors here in Malaysian. So, good, it gives him a little bit of reward for a difficult year.”

Unfortunatel🍒y for Crutchlow, the ✱dry morning session means he finished day one just 18th on the combined timesheets.

“It’s just a shame it didn't put me through to Q2 because if it rains in the night, which it loo💯ks like it's going to, it's going to be a hard Q1 again,” he said. “It also looks like it could rain tomorrow afternoon and qualifying in the rain is difficult, especially that Q1.”

Unable to assist Quartararo’s flagging title challenge by putting pressure on the likes of Francesco Bagnaia and Aleix Espargaro, Crutchlow nonetheless is supporting the Frenchman by 𓆏running through alternative tyre and set-up options that could benefit the #20.

“It's always good that we can try some different th🐎ings to the factory guys that tend to stay quite near the base. And then they have the information for the rest of the weekend,” Crutchlow said.

“Tomorrowꦓ, we'll try and flip the tyres where I will use something different to the others so that we've got the information - degradation of the tyre, that kind of thing -that we can then analyse and see i💝f it's worth them trying or not.

“It could be a busy day or a lon🎶g day tomorrow, de💎pending on the weather!”

Quartararo, who needs to bridge a 14-point gap to Bagnaia over the final two races, was seventh fastest in the dry FP1 and ninth on wet tyres in 🌊FP2.