Lorenzo: Thailand race in doubt after ‘scary’ crash

Jorge Lorenzo admitted he was frightened when his Ducati GP18 spat him off in MotoGP FP2, an action which led to a bruising impact with the asphalt and left his further participation in the inaugural grand prix of Thailand in some doubt.

The 32-year old Majorcan was already nursing a right foot injury before he was flung from his Ducati when entering the Chang International Circuit’s turn three. The spill was down to a mechanical issue, he said, after a check up confirmed he had not suffered any further fractures.

Ducati confirmed as much, but factory team boss Davide Tardozzi was unable to go into specifics. “We are analysing the moment quite deeply in this moment,” he told assembled media. “We don’t know if we can say something more in the future but we want to avoid any discussion about Jorge’s fault.”

Despite the horror spill, Lorenzo counted himself rather fortunate on Friday evening to have escaped serious injury. Still, a heavy contusion on his right ankle, which led to him being partly carried into his debrief, and left wrist meant he and Ducati will assess his condition on Saturday morning, before deciding if he will ride again this weekend.

“Well, looking at the crash obviously I could be much worse now,” said Lorenzo. “I could be much more injured, or I could have injured another part [of my body] that wasn’t injured, or made the foot injured. I’m not 100 percent sure, but I’m nearly 100 percent that I don’t have anything broken. So that’s a very good sign.

“I’ve been very lucky for that because the crash was nasty. At this moment I am quite quiet because I know that was not my fault. I was a little bit worried to have the fall because I was thinking that I was injured and maybe this caused a new crash.

“It was scary. I was scared about my foot because it really hurts. I impact with the back and also with the feet and I was rolling a lot. The right foot was painful. Later little by little it didn’t get worse than before. I am lucky about that.

“But it was completely not my fault because there was a technical problem of the bike. This caused the crash.”

Looking ahead to qualifying day, Lorenzo described the chances of his competing further at the Chang International Circuit as “small.” He will, however, rest tonight and assess his condition tomorrow before making a decision.

“If you asked me now, I would say no,” he said of his chances of racing. “The last fracture, the last injury is a little bit worse; it’s not broken but it’s more painful. Apart from this I have my left wrist, a big contusion, and also the right ankle, a big contusion [on it]. I cannot put my foot on the ground.

“So if you asked me now, I would say no but I don’t want to say something too quickly. I will wait tonight to see how I feel tomorrow morning.

“I could be more lucky for sure, but also I could be more unlucky. I’m going to try and be positive. Maybe it’s a small possibility that tomorrow I can try to ride again. If not for sure I will try in Japan. In Japan I think I will be much better than I was coming here.”

Tardozzi added, “We discussed this with Jorge. We would like him to wait until tomorrow morning. He will pass the night and we will see how is body is tomorrow morning. We’ll take the decision together.”

And is the Italian concerned that the issue which led to his rider crashing could occur again, he was adamant: “No, no,” he said. “We are absolutely not worried about this problem and we are sure it will never happen [again].”