It was not the season opener that Jorge Lorenzo had dreamt of and the recriminations stem from multiple reasons. In fact, from the outside looking in, the Majorcan’s race might have simply seemed like a bad day, but the reality is much different, and this was partially evident already at the time of his crash. “On the second lap – Jorge began – at the end of the straight I had a problem with the front brake in the second part of the braking operation, so I tried to brake more with the rear brake. In the lap when I crashed, I had already felt that something wasn’t right from the first braking section, but on turn four I found myself with no brakes. I was headed straight for the wall at high speed, so after I tried to brake I opted for the fall.”

Obviously, we tried to figure out why straight away, but for now everything is still a mystery, thickened by an important detail.

“When the bike came back to the garage, they noticed that there was only one pad and not two. I went to see if the other one was on turn four, but they didn’t find it. So, at this time we cannot say where the fault lies or why it happened. I have faith in Ducati to figure it out.”

So all that’s left is to analyse everything else, and Jorge cannot help but to be disappointed at the end of a weekend of ups and downs.

“It was a strange weekend, not only because of this mishap, but also because we struggle with a lot of problems, for example the electronics. I am lucky that I didn’t get hurt. If it had happened on the first turn at 300 km/h, things would have been different.”

However, the race is not a complete loss, and number 99 demonstrates that he has lost neither hope nor the right motivation in anticipation of the second Grand Prix.

“At the start I had trouble keeping the front wheel on the ground, so I had to catch up. I was trying to manage braking and in the final laps I was recovering on the riders ahead of me, and when I crashed, I was about to attack Iannone. Yesterday I had said that anything is possible and, considering the way that I was making up ground, a good placement or the win was not impossible. In the second part of the race, I think I would have improved even more. The fairing? I was able to try both the one with winglets and the one without, but I still need to decide which way to go next.”