Lorenzo: I've forgotten Phillip Island already

Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo wants to move swiftly on from Phillip Island after the three-time MotoGP world champion struggled all weekend on the GP17.

His team-mate and title challenger Andrea Dovizioso was also hampered by the Ducati’s dislike of the characteristics of the Phillip Island circuit, finishing the race in 13th place as he slipped to 33 points behind race winner and championship favourite Marc Marquez.

Lorenzo, who secured the final point in 15th place, said he has already ‘forgotten’ the difficulties he faced in Australia and now expects to be much stronger at Sepang in Malaysia, which hosts the penultimate round of the championship.

“I already forget this weekend because we just have to take all the information that didn’t work here to try to make a bike that works better in this type of track – like this one and Sachsenring that has long corners and where you are spinning for a long time,” he said.

“In this type of track the bike needs to improve so much and we struggled so much – all the Ducatis struggled. I tried my best in the race but it didn’t work and we had a lot of problems with traction at the end of the race; Malaysia will be much better for sure.

“We came back to the setting of Friday morning and it was slightly better, but still almost one second from the fastest,” Lorenzo added.

“More or less [result was what he expected], although I expected less dropping [of traction] from the rear and it was very difficult to manage, but in terms of the speed I didn’t expect much better.”

Lorenzo also struggled to make the Ducati turn in Phillip Island’s long, sweeping corners and says this is another key area where improvement is required for 2018.

“We are strong on braking, we are strong on acceleration and strong in the race, but still the bike, when you need to stay a long time on the angle with the throttle, the bike doesn’t turn,” he said.

“We need to concentrate all of the work with the new bike to be better in all the tracks but especially in this type of circuit.”