Jorge Lorenzo says the Austin MotoGP weekend will be one to forget and has been left feeling "very sad", after he struggled to a distant 11th in Sunday's race at he Circuit of the Americas.
The Ducati rider was able to extract an “explosive” laptime from his bike in qualifying to go sixth, but expected to struggle in the race when the grid dropped.
Lorenzo also struggled in the early stages of the race for pace after opting for the hard rear tyre, and quickly dropped down the order, eventually finishing 11th after late moves from Ducati stablemates Tito Rabat and Jack Miller, and Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro.
“With new tyres over one explosive lap I was quite competitive, but I wasn't for the [race] pace,” Lorenzo, who is now 40 points from team-mate Andrea Dovizioso at the top of the championship in 16th, said.
“Also we choose the hard rear option, that didn't help to give us a good feeling. So it was a weekend to forget.
“I'm very disappointed, very sad, but we have to keep going and try our best in the future. I was never able to lap with a competitive pace.
“I suffered a lot, as I feared, with used tyres and for this reason I had to slow my pace. Our bike requires a lot of physical effort on this type of circuit, and opting for the hardest rear tyre didn't help things at all.
“It's a difficult moment and we have to analyse everything that has happened since the start of the championship, but I hope that starting from Jerez we will be able to reverse this negative trend.”
Dovizioso: We manage first three races in a good way
Dovizioso took the chequered flag in fifth after a tough weekend in Austin, where the Italian believes Ducati has proven it hasn't improved its “negative points”.
However, Dovizioso feels Ducati has come through the first three rounds better than at this stage last year, though is wary that Honda has taken a considerable step forward compared to last season.
“In one way really happy, in another not happy, because we confirm that at some tracks we struggle like last year and we didn't improve enough our negative points,” he said.
“This is really bad. The positive thing is we are going to Jerez first in the championship in a much better situation than last year, and we manage the first three races in a good way.
“But from outside it looks like Honda is more competitive than the past, and I don't know. I'm happy with the way we work this weekend, because on Friday we were very far [from the top].
“We took the right decision with the set-up and we were able to finish fifth, which is not too bad, but our speed wasn't enough.”
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