Sachsenring MotoGP: Dutch disaster spurs on Jorge Lorenzo

Jorge Lorenzo is looking to bounce back quickly from his Dutch disaster in Assen last weekend with a strong performance to get his 2012 MotoGP title tilt back on course in Germany.

Last Saturday’s Assen round turned into a nightmare for the Spaniard, who was taken out in a controversial first corner accident caused by Alvaro Bautista.

Casey Stoner’s victory wiped out Lorenzo’s 25-point championship lead but the crash also robbed the 2010 world champion of a nearly new Yamaha YZR-M1 engine.

Cost-cutting restrictions limiting riders to only six engines per season means Lorenzo might be forced to sit out some practice sessions towards the end of the season to save on mileage.

But he said the Assen issues had only made him more determined to bounce back in style at Sachsenring on Sunday.

He said: “It has been quite a negative week after Assen. We didn’t even finish the first lap and I got no points and one engine less. It is going to be difficult or almost to impossible to recover this engine because the only way is if the other brands want to give me this engine and I think it is quite difficult. But the rules are the rules and I want to keep the rules and accept the rules and it is ok for me. It will be much more difficult than before Assen but I like it when things are difficult. I don’t like easy things so now I have big motivation to keep trying to win races. It is a problem because the crashed engine in Assen was almost new with only 150ks on it and it will be difficult to finish the championship with the engines we have. I still need to speak to Ramon (Forcada) and Yamaha for them to tell me what is the strategy. I hope we can manage to make all the practice during the season but it is going to be difficult for sure. Maybe we have to lose some laps.”

Lorenzo attended the pre-event press conference in Germany on crutches and he said the impact of Bautista’s San Carlo Gresini Honda slamming into his right side had stretched tendons in his ankle.

He added: “When I crashed in Assen I felt some pain that wasn’t really big but after a few hours it started to get more and when I was back in Barcelona they told me I had stretched the tendons. I still need one month to put my foot on the ground but anyway I hope tomorrow it will be ok on the bike because on the bike you don’t have to use the feet like when you run. But we will see how I feel.”