Finishing outside of the top 10 not what was expected.
Eleventh on debut with Ducati Team wasn’t what three-time MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo ordered at Qatar on Sunday, in the race won by Movistar Yamaha replacement Maverick Viñales.
Lorenzo crossed the finish-line a full 20 seconds behind teammate Andrea Dovizioso, who marginally missed out on the victory in P2, after a mistake cost him valuable track positioning on the opening lap.
The Spaniard ran as high as ninth in the race during the mid-stages, but backed it down six laps from the end when his confidence dropped aboard the Desmosedici. That ulmately put him outside of the top 10 at race’s end.
“It was a very complicated race from all aspects,” Lorenzo said. “I started off well, but on the opening lap I went wide and lost a lot of positions and this conditioned me in my efforts to get back up. Then I felt better on the bike and I started to lap at the same pace as the leaders.
“Unfortunately in the final part of the race I started to lose confidence in the tyres and my bike became a lot more physical to ride, so I had to slow the pace and I was unable to finish in the top 10. I want to be positive about things, even though my first race with Ducati didn’t go the way we expected. We are just at the start and we know we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Lorenzo lost out to rookie pairing Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and Jonas Folger (Monster Energy Yamaha Tech 3) in the closing laps, but managed to fend off Avintia Racing Ducati satellite runners Loris Baz and Hector Barbera for 11th place.