MCN

LORENZO NOT EXPERIENCE­D ENOUGH TO CHALLENGE

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New Ducati signing Jorge Lorenzo has conceded that a lack of experience onboard his Ducati was the reason for his poor showing during his debut for the Italian firm in Sunday’s race. The Spaniard has spent all winter working to adapt his riding style to the new bike after nine seasons on a Yamaha M1 – but says that despite that, he still has work to do before he can make match the results of his teammate Andrea Dovizioso. He finished 11th, 20 seconds behind the winner. “It was disappoint­ing – not what I had dreamed about. Andrea started ahead of me, he didn’t make a mistake that cost him three or four seconds and he has a lot more experience than me, especially with old tyres when they’ve started to drop. He’s able to ride much better then, maybe using the rear brake to turn, but when I start to lose the rear grip I lose so much performanc­e. “I still need to change a lot about my riding, but I think in Qatar it looked worse than it really is. We’re not so bad, and I tried to do the best, but that wasn’t great on the day thanks to some mistakes and some bad feelings.” However, there is one positive for the 29-year-old, who says that he’s able to take reassuranc­e from the performanc­e by his team-mate in the race. “Andrea as always is a very clever guy, and he stayed focused and didn’t make mistakes during a difficult race. He took the maximum from the bike, but it did surprise me that he fought for the victory with Viñales, who seemed to be the clear favourite with no opposition.”

 ??  ?? Lorenzo needs to learn... and fast
Lorenzo needs to learn... and fast

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