Jorge Lorenzo says he had to “risk a lot” in his battle with Marc Marquez in the MotoGP race at Misano, and feels Marquez fought so hard as he “knew” victory was out of reach.
Lorenzo started the San Marino Grand Prix from pole after smashing the lap record twice in qualifying, and grabbed the holeshot at the start.
Despite fears Lorenzo would be able to check out if allowed to lead early on, he soon dropped behind Ducati teammate and eventual winner Andrea Dovizioso.
He mounted a late charge on the Italian, reducing his 2.5s lead by a second, but crashed at Quercia on the penultimate lap, relinquishing Marquez into second following an earlier tussle between the pair.
Lorenzo struggled all race with the medium front tyre, and says his duel with Marquez made him “risk a lot”, while claiming the Honda rider deliberately battled him so hard as his chances of victory had evaporated.
“I was coming better and better, having a better feeling in the last laps,” Lorenzo said following his 17th-place finish after remounting from his crash.
“We lose also a lot of time in the last 10 laps with this fight with Marc.
“I think Marc knew he couldn't win today, so he tried to stop me to go first and go for Dovi.
“So his only chance was to stop me and fight for the second place. This for sure made me lose some seconds to Dovi, and made me risk a lot to try to catch him in the end.”
Expanding on his woes, the low durability of his preferred soft option rear meant he was forced to run the medium, which made him “vert uncomfortable” under braking and ultimately led to his late crash.
“Firstly, one of the keys of today, from the negative part, has been the impossibility to choose the soft tyres, especially the rear; it was impossible to choose the soft rear because it was destroyed after 10 laps.
“There was too much difference between the soft and the medium one, and the front, in the warm-up, we put soft and soft, the rear was impossible.
“So this also created some problems with the soft front, so this made me start out to put [the medium] in for the race.
“Putting in the medium/medium made me feel very uncomfortable on braking, especially on the front because I didn't have grip neither the front or the rear.
“So I couldn't stop the bike, and always pushing so much the front tyre and risking a lot.”
