Strategy, miscommunication errors rob Lorenzo potential

It all started so well. Jorge Lorenzo appeared on course to turn his season around in Sunday’s flag-to-flag MotoGP encounter at Brno, but ultimately team strategy errors and miscommunication put paid to his hopes, leaving the five-time world champion a highly frustrating 15th at the flag.

Bearing last year’s race, when it took the Brno’s track surface a considerable amount of time to dry in mixed conditions, Lorenzo and his Ducati squad opted to fit his second bike with a wet setting before the start, a decision that would prove costly.

The Majorcan swept majestically into an early lead but soon found his wet tyres were not matched to the rapidly drying surface. Unable to pit as early as Marc Marquez, due to his team changing his second bike’s set-up from wet to dry, the 30-year old remained on track, while his rivals stole a march.

Any chance Lorenzo had of a strong result disappeared when he pitted at the close of lap four. With technicians still working on converting set-up in pit lane, he left pit lane on a bike with half dry settings, and half wet, an ungainly compromise that saw him listlessly fall down the order.

Speaking after the race, a visibly frustrated Lorenzo revealed he had received a dashboard message from his team telling him to pit on the lap he did, only to find the second bike unready – a communication breakdown that ruined his feeling when back on track.

“I think our problem was the delay in the decision to prepare the second bike to go on dry,” he said. “This delay created the problem we had in the pit lane. It helped Marquez to take advantage of that, because they planned it before, probably.

“I just wanted to make one or maximum two more laps before entering the pits, making a signal to the guys, but just 3 corners before I entered the pits I received a signal on the dashboard, "Bike Change".

“So when I saw that, I entered the pits, understanding that the bike was ready. But it wasn't. Probably the team saw that Marc was so fast already, they decided to take the risk to put this signal already one lap before, so we wouldn't lose more seconds, but their guess was that it would take 30 or 40 seconds to change the bike, but it wasn't enough, and my bike was not ready.

“When I entered I saw the team working on the bike, the suspension technician putting the right settings, and when I exited the bike felt a little bit strange, and they told me also that my setting was half dry, half wet. Which is why I couldn't go a little bit faster during these 18 laps.”

Asked why his team decided to signal for him to pit when his spare machine was far from ready, Lorenzo appeared to be as perplexed as the assembled media.

“What I understand is that when I see "Bike Change", I need to enter the pits. I don't think about if I need just two corners to enter the finish line or more. I just see the signal and I enter the pits. It's their decision whether to put the signal or not, and they know where I am.

“But as I said before, we are a team: sometimes I make a mistake – many times I have made a mistake, this year I have made many mistakes, for example, in Assen I entered the pits when I didn't have to enter – and this time it was the guys who made this mistake. So you have to accept it, and in this chaos of rules which we have in MotoGP, this can happen.”

The outcome was all the more frustrating for the Majorcan considering his weekend performance. Sixth in qualifying didn’t quite convey his potential. And in full wet conditions, Lorenzo was ominously strong.

“Today was the perfect day and situation to finally win a race with Ducati,” he said. “I don't think I'm exaggerating, I always say the truth, and today I felt that I could have this chance. The bike gave me so much confidence that in any conditions, on rain, with more water, with less water, I was really, really quick. But we were unlucky that in these 40 minutes of MotoGP the track dried up.

“It would be difficult to fight with Marc, because Marc is honestly very good to go quick suddenly when he switches from wet tires to dry tires, he's the best one in those conditions, he's very aggressive and he warms up the tyres very quickly.

“I'm not the best one at that. Honestly, this is the truth, I need a little more time to understand the track, and I lose several seconds in that first part of the second race. Also the setting was not right, so … very bad.”