2015 MotoGP Champion Jorge Lorenzo struggled all weekend at the Circuit Termas de Río Hondo. It was clear to see that as the Spanish Movistar Yamaha rider spent very little time on track before the race. He appeared to complain a lot to his team mechanics about the front end of the M1, as his gestures he was seen making towards his demonstrated that the front end felt like it was going to ‘fold’.
Lorenzo finished FP1 in twelfth and dropped to fourteenth after FP2, but after FP3 where he finished second fastest he had appeared to turn things around, and managed to secure the last place on the front row of the grid after qualifying in third for the race.
He made a great start, he led going into the first corner, but then it all seemed to go horribly wrong. First Repsol Honda rider Marc Marquez overtook him, then Lorenzo’s teammate Rossi, followed by Team Suzuki Ecstar rider Maverick Vinales and the Ducatis of Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea ‘The Maniac’ Iannone. By the end of the first lap, he dropped from the front to sixth. At the end of the start-finish straight, the Spaniard took a slightly wider line going into turn one where riders have struggled all weekend; the rear wheel of his M1 touched a wet patch on the exit of now infamous first corner of the drying track and down he went. He slid out of the race and into the gravel trap where he could do nothing to change his fate. It was race over, weekend over, for the 2015 Champion. No points! No way of knowing if the modified wings worked!
“It was a weekend to forget. We had problems during the practice sessions and finally we got a first row in qualifying and a good start, but with these conditions and wet patches in some corners I wasn’t comfortable. I think it was my fault! As a rider I didn’t feel comfortable enough to stay in the first group and I saw them risking so much. I made a mistake in the first corner which was more complicated; it was the corner with more wet patches and I went in a little bit too wide on this particular lap and just lost the front and couldn’t continue. This is racing! Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. You have to accept it and think positive, just forget this race and think about the future.”
Lorenzo won in Qatar meaning he has twenty-five points for the championship; however his DNF in Argentina means he is in fourth, sixteen points behind leader Marquez who has forty-one points.
