Lorenzo laments wrong front tyre choice
Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo reckons choosing the wrong front tyre compound for the Japanese Grand Prix is what cost him a shot at victory.
Photo by: Yamaha MotoGP
Lorenzo, who had to go to the hospital on Saturday after a nasty FP3 crash but managed to continue with the weekend, was deciding between the soft and the medium front tyre for the race and eventually stuck with the more conventional latter option.
He led the race early on but soon slipped behind Marc Marquez and teammate Valentino Rossi. When Rossi crashed out, Lorenzo was on course for second, but himself fell with five laps to go, allowing Marquez to clinch the MotoGP title then and there.
The medium front was used by everyone who finished in the top 10 at Motegi but Cal Crutchlow, the Briton sticking with the hard compound. Lorenzo, however, believes he should've picked the soft front instead.
Asked about his condition after his race-ending crash, Lorenzo said: "I'm okay, the crash didn't hurt me any more, this is no problem. The problem is that I didn't finish the race and I'm very disappointed because I could go up to second place [in the standings], but I lost a great opportunity.
"Disappointed because I think we made the wrong decision with the front tyre, we chose the medium and the medium for us was not good for all the weekend. In FP4 I didn't feel vibration [on the medium] and because it was hot today, we decided to put it - but I'm sure with the soft one I would be much better, I could stay with Marc and fight for the victory.
"A big pity but, if in Aragon we made a great decision with the tyres and we made a good race, this time it was the opposite. We made a mistake with the front tyre and also I made a mistake to push too much in that corner and crash."
"Great chance" gone begging
Lorenzo, who remains 14 points behind Rossi in the fight for runner-up, was particularly downbeat over the outcome of the Motegi race because the track appeared to suit Yamaha.
"It was a pity because here we had a great chance to win," said the Spaniard, who had won the Japanese Grand Prix in 2009, 2013 and 2014.
"The [FP3] crash made more difficult my pace in the race because of the pain, and also the mistake on the front tyre.
"We lost a great opportunity in this track, it was a good track for a win."
Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont
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