---
title: "Jorge Lorenzo ready for tough race in Austin"
canonical: "https://readmotorsport.com/2017/04/23/jorge-lorenzo-ready-tough-race-austin/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Alex Murray"
section: "MotoGP News"
published: "2017-04-23T10:02:36Z"
modified: "2017-04-23T10:03:08Z"
---

# Jorge Lorenzo ready for tough race in Austin

Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo says he is ready for a tough race tomorrow at the Circuit of the Americas, after the Spaniard put in his best qualifying performance of the season in sixth on Saturday.

Lorenzo’s start to life so far at Ducati has been difficult. He was off the pace at Qatar, and crashed out in Argentina on the opening lap. The Spaniard also had to go through QP1 for the third time this season, having previously only ever missed QP2 twice prior to 2017.

However, this weekend has seen Lorenzo much more competitive on the Desmosedici despite missing the top 10 in practice, something that can be attributed to a crash at the end of the third practice.

A new seating position has given Lorenzo more confidence in the front-end of his GP17, and he used this to post a 2m04.151s in QP2 to qualify as top Ducati rider by almost three tenths of a second in sixth spot.

![Mirco Lazzari gp/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readmotorsport.com/readmotorsport/2017/04/666261350.jpg)

“Finally today we were able to obtain a good result, after a few difficult weeks,” he said.

“I am the best Ducati on the grid, but the most important thing is that I had a good feeling on my bike, and I managed to confirm what I had wanted to demonstrate in Argentina.”

After colliding with Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone at Turn 1 in Argentina, Lorenzo admits he will be taking a more cautious approach to the race start in Texas. He is also aware 21 laps of the Circuit of the Americas on the Desmosedici will be tough, but is optimistic of a strong showing.

“Tomorrow it’ll be very important to get off to a good start, try and take as few risks as possible in the early laps, and above all finish the race because I want to put behind me the disappointment of the last GP.”

“It’s going to be a very tough race physically, but I feel strong and I am very happy with the work that me and my team are doing.”