Lorenzo: “The race went better than I expected”

Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) made a great start to the Americas GP, dueling Maverick Viñales (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) off the line before ending Lap 1 in sixth and then getting caught by teammate Andrea Dovizioso.

Running much of the race in seventh, the five-time World Champion then got some graining in the front tyre and began to lose ground, crossing the line in P9 after getting caught by Andrea Iannone (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and Danilo Petrucci (Octo Pramac Racing) late in the race. But his pace was better than during practice and qualifying, and the Mallorcan is positive as the calendar rolls on to Jerez.

Jorge Lorenzo, P9: “All in all, the race went better than I expected, at least regarding my pace over practice and qualifying. Today I was faster than ever on race pace, I never did that pace in practice and I was catching Andrea in the middle of the race. For sure we cannot be satisfied with the final position, because our target is certainly much higher, but in feeling and pace we made a small step forward in this race. It all went more or less how I expected until the front tyre began to have some graining and I lost touch with Dovizioso. Without this problem, I think I could have finished the race right behind him but the situation got worse over the last few laps. When Iannone caught me he passed very aggressively and I lost a couple of seconds there, then Petrucci caught me too. Ninth isn’t what we’re here for because we’re here to fight with Yamaha and Honda, but at the moment that’s not possible. But the positive is we were much closer than before.”