Jorge Lorenzo feels he’s “out of danger” after making it through his “survival” MotoGP British Grand Prix return weekend, and is confident he can push harder in the next races.
Lorenzo fractured his back in a crash during practice for the Dutch TT at the end of June, and had to miss that plus the following three races while he continued his recovery.
He was consistently at the back end of the field throughout the weekend and admitted that he preferred not crashing again over reaching the limits of his Honda our of “fear” of aggravating his injuries.
Lorenzo finished the race in 14th, likening his afternoon to that at Laguna Seca in 2013 – when he’d just had recent surgery on a broken collarbone.
“These three days have been kind of survival weekend for me, similar to when I raced at Laguna Seca in 2013 with the recently operated collarbone for the second time,” Lorenzo said.
“I couldn’t crash at Laguna Seca and I finished sixth there, and I couldn’t crash here [at Silverstone] and I finished [14th]. I expected the 14th position.
“Now I think I am a little bit out of danger, even if I have the test in Misano just in four days, there still will be some days of little danger for the injury but I think at the Misano GP I will be quite okay.
“I will be fitter and with not so much fear to crash and the speed will improve.”
Lorenzo was happy with his pace in the race, which was his best of the whole weekend, but he admitted he had to slow down in the end due to back pain.
“Little by little I was getting the pace, the first two or three laps I struggle a little bit with the full tank to stop the bike,” he recalled.
“When the fuel tank got more empty I start braking even harder than during all the weekend so the laptimes were better.
“I never rode with medium tyres in that pace during all weekend, so that is very nice to reduce the difference with the fastest one from four seconds to less than three, even 2.5s in some laps.
“I expect to finish probably last – I always was in front of [Karel] Abraham, in front of even [Hafizh] Syahrin, who was much faster than me during all the weekend.
“The rear tyre dropped a lot in the last laps, so that is why also Syahrin who was following me all the race, could overtake me and take the position.
“Also I started having a lot of pain on the back, so I had to reduce a little bit the pace. My back is very sore, more sore than Saturday and Friday.
“I’ve done 20 laps in a row, going faster than in the weekend, I pushed quite a lot and to stay 45 minutes in this position doesn’t help the injury, now it is very inflamed and I have a lot of pain.”