Lorenzo ‘disappointed, sad’ with listless eleventh

Another weekend and another occasion for Jorge Lorenzo to conduct some soul-searching, after the Majorcan finished Sunday’s MotoGP outing at the Circuit of the Americas a distant eleventh, a result that left him feeling “disappointed” and “very sad”.

Lorenzo said his latest showing was “difficult to accept” after he came off worse in a four-rider fight with Tito Rabat, Jack Miller and Aleix Espargaro for eighth. Not even a mild contretemps with the Australian rider after a tough move at turn one could divert attention away from the five-time champion’s misery.

Unlike team-mate Andrea Dovizioso, Lorenzo was unable to take advantage of the added front-end feel offered by Ducati’s aerodynamic fairing, and found the GP18 to be extremely physical, especially when braking for the track’s three hairpin bends.

“I'm very disappointed and very sad,” said Lorenzo, 16th in the championship with just six points to his name after a sorry opening to the season. “Today is not a good day for me.

“Difficult to accept this result, but there is no other way than to forget this race, think positively, keep working very hard, as hard as I am working now, and the results for the moment are not coming. Let's hope that in Europe things will change and I can demonstrate my riding.”

What were his main issues?

“A lot of problems,” he began. “Firstly at the beginning, at the start, difficult to start with the new bike a little bit more than last year. Probably we didn't choose the right tyre on the rear, it was very hard and it was spinning so much and moving so much.

“[It is a] very physical track and with the new bike I believe that I struggle more physically, especially in the braking. We have to find a solution for the future. So very sad race, disappointed so far back, so far from the top guys.

“But you know, I know what I did in the past and what I can do in the future, so just keep moving, keep working, and some day the satisfaction will arrive.”

Lorenzo apparently paid a post-race visit to Race Direction to highlight his displeasure at Miller’s late pass at turn one, which forced him to sit up.

The Australian revealed Lorenzo had rejected an apology soon after the 20 laps had finished.

But the Majorcan admitted it was worthless focusing on the incident when this latest performance was so fresh in the memory.

“Things didn't change so much, no,” he said, referring to race direction’s insistence it would punish riders more harshly after close-run incidents on track.

“If I don't pick up the bike, I crash. So if the rider doesn't impact you or you don't crash, they don't do anything.

"Always the same riders, these actions. But the race has been so bad that it's not worth it to speak about these things.”