Jorge Lorenzo says he was “limited” in what he could achieve in his Honda MotoGP debut in the Qatar Grand Prix due to shoulder pain caused by his heavy FP3 crash.
Lorenzo was flicked from his RC213V at Turn 6 at the start of third practice on Saturday afternoon, with the impact leaving his shoulder in considerable pain and forcing him to undergo scans in the circuit medical centre.
Starting from 14th after crashing again in qualifying, this time at Turn 2, Lorenzo finished his maiden Honda outing 14.3 seconds from the win in 13th.
Still recovering from the broken left wrist he suffered in January, Lorenzo says his shoulder “limited my confidence” and made sure he was “always slower” than he had been earlier in the weekend.
“Well, there are many positive things, even though it wasn't a great result because 13th position is never good,” he told motogp.com.
“But I was always very limited because of the [FP3] crash. It was a big impact, everywhere, but especially the shoulder.
“It limited my confidence and limited my physical condition on the bike, and from then on I was always slower than when I started the weekend. So this was the main problem.”
Lorenzo tried a new clutch for the race, but suffered slip off the line and dropped to 18th. He believes without this issue he could have “probably been in the top 10”.
“We tried to change the clutch, to have more margin for the start,” he added.
“But this was a problem today because the clutch was slipping, it was spinning, spinning for the warm-up lap and the first three laps.
“So that's why I almost went back to last position and five riders overtook me. I lose probably three or four seconds. If not [for this] I could have probably been in the top 10.
“Anyway, I think we have, without any doubt, much bigger potential than this 13th position and I think if we are not unlucky in the next races the good results will arrive soon.”
