#AustralianGP MotoGP J.2 Jorge Lorenzo “I will try to find a good rhythm and fight until the end”

After his recent podium in Aragon, Lorenzo could hope to have taken a decisive step in understanding and mastering the Ducati, but the Australian Grand Prix reminded him that there was still a lot of work left before regularly attending the summits.

During free practice, Jorge had to settle for the eleventh final time, which did not directly qualify him for Q2. Of all the Ducatis, only that ofAndrea Dovizioso was in the top ten, just nine hundredths behind Marc Marquez. But if Marc's time had been completed on used tires, Andrea's time had been with a set of new tires. The difference did not appear, although it was real.

Saturday morning, Jorge fell heavily and hurt his ankle. Fortunately there was no fracture, but the joint had suffered. In these conditions, Lorenzo could not claim to qualify at the end of Q1. He tried bravely, but his efforts were only rewarded with sixteenth place. He equaled his worst qualifications of the year, which were already sixteenth places obtained in Argentina and at Le Mans.

According to Jorge Lorenzo, who are " It was a very difficult day because things were going completely in the wrong direction. This morning the rain meant it would be impossible for us to improve enough to get into Q2 and obviously the crash didn't help the situation.

“I arrived with the front tire on the white line and I lost the front, when I saw that I was too far away, I could no longer change trajectory due to the great inclination, I could not do not avoid touching the white line.  

“When I ride the bike now, it means I have to use my upper body to take the weight off the foot, which will make me more tired more quickly to get the most out of it. I take painkillers for pain. 

“It was a bad accident and I drove into the gravel several times. I immediately thought I had something broken, but luckily the x-ray ruled out any fracture and only confirmed a sprained left ankle, which hurts a lot.

“In these conditions we were not able to improve the bike in the dry and tomorrow, if it does not rain, we will return to our original settings from Friday to try to take a step forward. It's going to be a long, difficult race but I'm going to try to find a good rhythm and fight until the end. 

“Dovi is in very good physical and mental shape. After his crash in FP4, he lost some self-confidence, but otherwise everything is in order. The rest of the Ducati riders have much bigger problems. I thought the new parts we received during the season would solve the problems we had in the pre-season test here, but they are more of the same. Maybe Sunday will bring some progress. »

Qualification results:

1 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1'28.386

2 Maverick VIÑALES SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1'28.719 to 0.333

3 Johann ZARCO FRA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1'28.744 to 0.358

4 Andrea IANNONE ITA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 1'28.937 at 0.551

5 Jack MILLER AUS EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 1'28.964 to 0.578

6 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 1'29.030 at 0.644

7 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1'29.203 to 0.817

8 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 1'29.271 to 0.885

9 Bradley SMITH GBR Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 1'29.321 at 0.935

10 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR LCR Honda 1'29.429 to 1.043

11 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 1'29.496 to 1.110

12 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1'29.546 to 1.160

13 Alex RINS SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki

14 Tito RABAT SPA EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda

15 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Pull&Bear Aspar Team Ducati

16 Jorge LORENZO SPA Ducati Team Ducati

17 Loris BAZ FRA Reale Avintia Racing Ducati

18 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA OCTO Pramac Racing Ducati

19 Hector BARBERA SPA Reale Avintia Racing Ducati

20 Scott REDDING GBR OCTO Pramac Racing Ducati

21 Broc PARKES AUS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha

22 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Pull&Bear Aspar Team Ducati

23 Sam LOWES GBR Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia

Reference times:

Test record: 1'27.899 by Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) in 2013

Lap record: 1'28.108 by Marc Marquez (Honda) in 2013

Best top speed: 348,0 km/h for Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) in 2015

Provisional ranking of the World Championship:

1 Marc MARQUEZ-Honda 244 points

2 Andrea DOVIZIOSO-Ducati 233

3 Maverick VIÑALES-Yamaha 203

4 Dani PEDROSA-Honda 170

5 Valentino ROSSI-Yamaha 168

6 Johann ZARCO-Yamaha 125

7 Jorge LORENZO-Ducati 116

8 Danilo PETRUCCI-Ducati 111

9 Cal CRUTCHLOW-Honda 92

10 Jonas FOLGER-Yamaha 84

11 Alvaro BAUTISTA-Ducati 70

12 Aleix ESPARGARO-Aprilia 62

13 Jack MILLER-Honda 56

14 Scott REDDING-Ducati 56

15 Andrea IANNONE-Suzuki 50

16 Loris BAZ-Ducati 45

Manufacturers:

1 HONDA 294 points

2 DUCATI 273

3 YAMAHA 265

4 SUZUKI 77

5 APRILIA 64

6 KTM 51

Teams:

1 REPSOL HONDA TEAM 414 points

2 MOVISTAR YAMAHA MOTOGP 371

3 DUCATI TEAM 349

4 MONSTER YAMAHA TECH 3 209

5 OCTO PRAMAC RACING 167

6 PULL&BEAR ASPAR TEAM 98

7 LCR HONDA 92

8 TEAM SUZUKI ECSTAR 89

9 EG 0,0 MARC VDS 85

10 REALE AVINTIA RACING 70

11 APRILIA RACING TEAM GRESINI 67

12 RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING 56

Photo © Ducati