From second place on the grid Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) made a perfect start to Sunday’s Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya and was in control of the race for the first six laps. But then his pace began to drop and Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) slipped past him, quickly followed by Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team). Something was clearly wrong with Lorenzo’s bike, the 2015 MotoGP™ World Champion revealing after the race that he struggled to find grip with his front tyre, the issue getting worse as the race went on. Even with the problems he looked on track to score points, certainly a top ten and take something away from a terrible day.
"There is always one rider that doesn’t understand the risks and that his actions can seriously injure the other riders"That was until lap 17 when Andrea Iannone (Ducati Team) collided with Lorenzo, bringing the pair down. For the second time in 2016 Lorenzo was forced to return to his pits and leaves the weekend with zero points. Failing to scores sees Lorenzo slip to second in the championship table, Marc Marquez now ten points ahead thanks to his second place. With Valentino Rossi taking first, Lorenzo is now only 12 points in front of him.
Jorge Lorenzo: “First of all, as I said yesterday, everything is secondary after what happened on Friday. About the race, it’s unbelievable that Iannone made this mistake again and when he did, instead of saying “sorry” he asked me if I had an engine failure or something strange happening in this corner. I thought it was his fault, but he had this reaction and didn’t say sorry. There is always one rider that doesn’t understand the risks and that his actions can seriously injure the other riders and if Race Direction don’t give him a hard penalisation, like they did with me in 2005, these kinds of riders don’t understand that they have to change their mentality. That's why I think starting the race from last position is not enough, because in five to seven laps he will be positioned at the front again due to his pace.”