French MotoGP: Tough and painful day for Jorge Lorenzo

Jorge Lorenzo did little to ease the pain of his battered body after another crash in Le Mans today, yet the gritty Spaniard still qualified fifth on the grid for tomorrow’s 28-lap French MotoGP.

The double world 250 champion crashed out again this morning in the third and final free practice session, though fortunately he escaped any further damage to the broken ankles he suffered in Shanghai 15 days ago.

Lorenzo had two further off-track excursions on an incident-packed weekend for the Fiat Yamaha rider who said: “This is a very difficult time and I have a lot of pain in all of my body, but I want to keep going and I think fifth place is a very good position for me today.

“Of course I know it’s a risk for me, but this sport always has some danger and I don’t think about this. Today was hard and my crash this morning didn’t help, but I didn’t make anything worse and I was able to ride this afternoon and to try hard with my qualifying tyres.

“We need to improve the bike more for this track, especially the electronics and the chassis, but I know that we can be better tomorrow and I am sure that my physical condition will be better as well. Neither our bike nor my mental or physical condition is perfect here and my rhythm is not as good as at the other races, but of course I still want to try to be in front and this is why I have made some mistakes today.

“It’s not the end of the world however, I’ve been in worse situations in the past and I won’t panic. Tomorrow is another day and, although today I was lacking some confidence, I know I will feel better in myself tomorrow and that I will be able to try to take some points.”