Lorenzo out at Turn 1, sure of top six potential

A "very disappointed" Jorge Lorenzo was left to pick through the bones of a disastrous Grand Prix of Argentina, and feels that an uncharacteristic first corner fall cost him the chance of challenging for the top six.

Starting from 16th after a damp qualifying, his worst grid position since August 2008, Lorenzo launched well but tagged the rear-wheel of Andrea Iannone's Suzuki at the first turn, causing him to crash out in spectacular style.

After going down at the same corner (later in the race) a year ago, Lorenzo now has more than a week to contemplate a weekend when he was outside the top ten in each free practice session, as well as morning warm-up.

"Luckily I'm OK," he said. "Because [after I fell] Baz almost touched me and almost ran over me, and I was lucky about that, so it was a nasty crash. So it was a long time ago, maybe Australia 2009 that I don't make it past the first corner [it was Assen 2012, thanks @RyanJShaw94], so very disappointed.

"Disappointed, because I needed more than ever to find the kilometers and the laps to keep the improvement we made during the weekend with the position of the bike, with the way of riding using more the rear brake to stop the bike. And in the warm up lap I felt very, very good.

"So a good start, but in the first corner, I decided to go to the inside, there was a lot of bikes there, and someway somehow, I found the rear wheel of Iannone very soon, and I touched him just a little bit, and the bike was going into the other side and I crashed.

"Very disappointed. A bad moment, because still ten, twelve days before I can get on the bike again, and I would like to go tomorrow. It's difficult, but at least I'm not injured, and we found a good way to be more competitive in the future."

Able to watch the race from his pit box, Lorenzo believes his consistency - brought about by a change to the height of his seat on Saturday - would have carried him to a top six finish.

"I think Andrea [Dovizioso] had a lot of problems this weekend, and I could have improved my pace on the race, so probably with a good start and no problems on the first lap, I could fight with Bautista for fourth, fifth, with the group behind. I think that was my place today, with the pace I imagine I could do.

"Every time I ride differently, more like you have to ride the Ducati, using the rear brake to stop, I improve so much in the braking.

"The warm-up was OK, I was very constant, not especially fast in the warm up just in one lap, but very constant, and still adapting to the bike. I expected in the race to improve three tenths or half a second. But this happened and my race was over.

"Let's say my championship will start in Austin. I hope. Because Qatar was a disaster, I was lucky to finish eleventh, because of a lot of crashes. And here, my race didn't exist. So in Austin we will start the championship."