Lorenzo relieved after difficult Sunday at round five

Initially wary of overconfidence after qualifying in first place at the Gran Premio d’Italia Alice on Sunday, having crashed out from pole in Jerez at round three, it was in fact a lack of confidence that briefly became an issue for Jorge Lorenzo at Mugello.

He lapped 13th on the timesheet on a wet track in the morning, crashed on the sighting lap before the race and was overtaken by several riders on the grid once the action commenced in Italy, before using all of his resources to battle his way back for a brilliant podium finish in second place.

Few riders cross the finishing line at Mugello ahead of Valentino Rossi in the premier class, but Lorenzo managed that despite his ‘shocking’ Sunday, only missing out on a third victory of the year by one second behind Casey Stoner.

“There were so many things happening and it was a crazy race,” Lorenzo admitted. “After the warm up I was so worried because I didn’t have a good feeling to go fast in the wet, but then I was even more worried after the crash in the sighting lap because I thought I might have to start last. I got a really bad start because my rear tyre was sliding so much and then I hardly remember anything because the race was like a film.”

Lorenzo was grateful to his team for their endeavours in quickly fixing his first bike and getting it ready for the swap mid-race, saying, “I have to say the biggest thank you to my guys today for getting the damaged bike ready in such a short time; it was a brilliant job and after I swapped everything changed. From then on I had a great rhythm and I was able to stay on fighting to the end and take this second place. It’s a really amazing result because things could have been much worse today, so thank you again to everyone for making it possible. I’m really happy with this result.”