Source: Supplied.

Leading the opening three laps on a quickly-drying track was as good as it got for Ducati Team’s Jorge Lorenzo on Sunday at Brno, heavily punished during his pit stop when his back-up bike wasn’t fully prepared to race.

Lorenzo was one of the later ones to pit after the team signalled him to come in, losing important time and positions during the bike swap only to rejoin the race in 19th place. He eventually clawed his way back to P15.

“Today’s race was a real shame,” Lorenzo reflected. “The weather was so unpredictable and it stopped raining when I was really fast on the damp track. I felt pretty good and I think we could have been able to fight for the win if the conditions had remained the same.

“Then we made an error with the bike change, because when the team signalled to me to return to the pits the bike wasn’t ready and we lost a bit of time, which ruined the rest of my race. For sure we’ll learn from this negative experience and won’t repeat the same error.

“But the positive thing from this weekend is that we were always competitive, both in the wet and the dry. Now we’re going to a circuit, where we should be amongst the favourites and so we’ll do everything possible to demonstrate it in the race.”

The MotoGP World Championship heads straight to the Red Bull Ring in Austria this weekend, the circuit in which was dominated by then Ducati duo Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso last season for a 1-2 finish.