Lorenzo explains ‘obligation’ to change Brno race strategy

Jorge Lorenzo says he had to alter his race strategy in Brno to maximise his performance and is adamant he could have fought for victory against Ducati team-mate Andrea Dovizioso with an extra lap in the Czech Republic race.

The Spanish rider was forced to settle for second place behind Dovizioso having been in the thick of the battles in the leading group, trading overtakes with his Ducati team-mate, Marc Marquez and Cal Crutchlow during the latter stages of the race, but lost ground to Dovizioso on the final lap to see his victory charge come up short.

Lorenzo admits he couldn’t attack in his usual style of charging away at the front before maintaining an advantage as the MotoGP grid had to conserve tyre life which meant the early race pace was slower than produced in practice at Brno.

The Ducati rider felt this made a race strategy switch ‘an obligation’ to keep in the front-running pack without conceding any tyre performance over the final laps.

“This first and second is fantastic but obviously I would be happier with a victory,” Lorenzo said. “Knowing how we started the weekend, as we were quite lost on Friday, how we improved the setting on the bike and my riding during the weekend we must be very proud and very happy because this time I needed the change the strategy.

“It was almost like an obligation because I had some problems being able to finish the race on the front tyre on the right side so I needed to ride quite a bit different from the beginning.

“I am a rider who has a different riding style especially on braking compared to the others. So I always have to have a free track to use my full potential but sometimes it was like an obligation to be slow at the beginning and save the tyres.”

Having moved up to second place ahead of Marquez on the closing laps, Lorenzo felt he had the pace to challenge his Ducati team-mate for victory with a faster pace but ran out of laps to catch the Italian.

“In the last lap I think with a free way I could have pushed a lot and been a couple of tenths faster,” he said. “But knowing how I started the weekend on Friday we can be very satisfied.

“It didn’t help that Marc overtook me but he must try, he always tries and that is in his style, he must try to do the best for him. But it didn’t help because Andrea was away by half of a second.

“I needed to be fast but I needed to do defensive lines because I knew Marc would try. Without making a defensive lap on the last lap I was fast on the last lap so I had something more but I couldn’t take profit of it because I arrived too late.”

Lorenzo’s first podium since his back-to-back wins at Mugello and Circuit de Catalunya sees him move up to fifth in the MotoGP world riders’ championship and just four points off his Movistar Yamaha replacement Maverick Vinales.