Lorenzo admits Misano crash down to losing concentration

Lorenzo dominated the early stages of the Misano race, quickly pulling away from the field after a lightning getaway from fifth on the grid.

The Spaniard’s advantage over second-placed Danilo Petrucci was stretched to more than three seconds when he lost the rear and crashed out on lap 7 at Turn 6.

Explaining the incident afterwards, Lorenzo admitted he had devoted too much mental energy to working out the best mapping to use and not enough to riding – and a quicker-than-normal change of direction was enough to unsettle his bike and end his race.

“The system on the Ducati is more complex [than the Yamaha], still it’s not natural because usually I don’t change it too much during the weekend,” Lorenzo explained.

“I still haven’t completely adapted and I think too much about all the possibilities. This means I lose concentration on riding, it doesn’t mean I just couldn’t ride.

“I made a little bit quicker change of direction and not using the rear brake. It was enough [to cause me to crash].

“I didn’t expect that this change of direction meant losing so aggressively the rear, but it happened and it was a big pity. But when you are racing in the rain, this can happen.

“A great pity because today we had the first great chance to win with Ducati, we lose it. It’s a matter of time [until] another podium arrives and maybe a victory.”

Despite not being renowned for his wet-weather pace, Lorenzo said he knew he could be competitive in the tricky conditions from Sunday morning’s warm-up session.

“In the rain I knew I was very strong because in the warm-up I felt good,” said the three-time premier class champion. "In the race I felt even better with some modifications that made me feel a little bit more confident.

"Riding quite calmly I opened the gap, one second each lap. Normally when I lead the race, I am very good at maintaining this distance.

"But the track in the wet was a little bit more tricky than normal, and I’m still understanding everything on the Ducati. I believe this lack of concentration for this reason of electronics caused the crash.

"Today you couldn’t have these things out of control to survive, and I didn’t.”

Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont