The Spaniard had been running 10th place and making up ground when he pitted at the end of the 14th lap in Brno, swapping to his slick tyre-shod second bike against the recommendation of his crew, who seemed baffled that Lorenzo had chosen to come in.

Lorenzo was back in the pits a lap later, with conditions still too wet for dry tyres, to change back to his first bike, albeit with a new front tyre.

The result of the double bike change was that the reigning champion finished out of the points in lowly 17th, in the process losing second place in the championship to Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi, who was second.

Speaking to media after the race, Lorenzo said his crew chief Ramon Forcada couldn't see that a large piece of tread was missing from the front tyre of his first bike, hence the confusion in the pits.

"My team did not know what was going on," the Spaniard recalled. "Firstly they didn’t understand, because when I stopped the bike, the [part] where the tyre was bad was [face down] on the tarmac.

"So the front tyre looked perfect. It was only when they moved the bike they understood the tyre was missing a piece. So probably that’s why Ramon didn’t understand why I wanted to change the bike.

"I changed to slicks, but it was really wet and it was dangerous, I just wanted to change again the bike because it was not worth it to keep riding."

'Michelin can't let this happen again'

Elaborating on the problem with the front tyre, Lorenzo believed a manufacturing defect affected him as well as several others, including works Ducati riders Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone.

Asked if he wished he had opted for the hard option front tyre, Lorenzo said: "I just wish we didn’t have the problem. The front tyre was at the limit for this construction.

"Some riders have this problem, some others not, but with some more laps most of the same riders would have had problems.

"There are small differences [between tyres], they are not all the same. This shouldn’t happen, and this is an experience Michelin has to take [on board] so this doesn’t happen again.

"If conditions are similar next time, this can happen again at another track, and this shouldn’t happen.

"There can be degradation, especially on the sides [of the tyre], but when pieces go out of the tyre, this shouldn’t happen."

Possible podium lost

Lorenzo said he thought that, without this initial tyre problem, he could have finished at least third, or perhaps challenge teammate Valentino Rossi, who went for the same tyre choice of a soft front and hard rear.

"Very bad luck, because with this tyre we didn’t finish the race – like Dovizioso, Iannone – when I was the fastest one at this moment, along with Cal and Rossi," added the reigning champion.

"I felt I could have been even faster, to finish surely third or even second. But we didn’t finish the race."

Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont