Jorge Lorenzo was left exasperated by a series of “strange, unlucky” events that pocked his second MotoGP race for Repsol Honda and kept him from building on a positive warm-up session on Sunday morning.
The five-time world champion felt he had made strides with the setting of his RC213V in the 20-minute session that preceded the race, which allowed him to lap the Termas de Rio Hondo Circuit 0.7s faster than in FP4.
However, as temperatures went up Lorenzo would soon find a track surface that was a good deal slipperier in the 25-lap race. That lack of feel he encountered on Friday and Saturday had returned.
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And that was only the start of his issues; Lorenzo accidentally hit the pit-lane speed limiter prior to the start, a move that cost him ten positions on the run to turn one.
He had contact with Karel Abraham at turn seven when contesting 20th place in the early laps. Then his left handlebar grip came loose, depriving him of further feel. “Unbelievable” was how he described the day's events. “Everything was bad – like a nightmare.”
“It’s unbelievable,” said the Majorcan, twelfth at the chequered flag, and 27 seconds off team-mate Marc Marquez. “In Qatar with the clutch and here with the pit limiter… It looks like I pressed it unconsciously.
“I remember just pressing the start procedure button but suddenly the RPM went down and I didn’t know what was going on. It looks like the button of the pit start was on and the bike didn’t go. Everyone overtook me and I was in last position again like in Qatar.
“When I started to recover positions I felt I was missing some rubber in the left handlebar lever. It was coming out and I was with no rubber in my left hand. There was no grip at all. Everything was bad. It was a very difficult race to recover positions.
“Also the grip was very bad after the Moto2 race and with the very hot conditions. It was like a nightmare. Finally I’m lucky because [Maverick] Viñales and [Franco] Morbidelli crashed so some more points.
“But I’m disappointed because it looks like when you’re in bad conditions, you get more problems. Hopefully in the future it will not happen again, these strange, unlucky things.”
Expanding on the issues with his handlebar grip, Lorenzo explained, “It looks like the metal [clips]… The rubber was too soft. I ask for a little bit softer rubber, but the metal cut the rubber. The rubber went away so it’s an unbelievable thing that happened in the race.”
Lorenzo demanded Abraham join him in Race Direction after the race due to the Czech’s move at turn seven, which the 31-year old described as “out of the logic.”
“We were fighting for the 20th position at this point in corner seven. He entered in the inside. He knew exactly I was there because in the previous corner I was in front of him. He was on the inside. I was a little bit wider because in front of me I had Zarco and another one. To not touch them, I was a little bit wider.
“He overtook me like we were fighting for the victory on the last lap. Very aggressive and I almost crashed. I saved it, but it had no meaning. I went to Race Direction to speak to them. I think this move was out of the logic.”
Could he take any positives from another tough weekend in Repsol colours? “I was very happy in the warm-up because we tried something on the bike that improved my feeling a lot,” he said. “I went 0.3-0.5s faster.
“But in the race with these hotter conditions and these unusual problems I couldn’t get the potential. From the outside it looks like excuses but it is unbelievable what is happening.
“The only good thing is that we finished the race. In Qatar we were 13th, here we’re twelfth - very bad positions but we need to look forward, forget the past and I’m sure sooner or later we will be more lucky.”
